


The Fluff Before the Storm

by Kazara



Series: The Equestrian RP Universe [2]
Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-03-04 10:12:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13362438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kazara/pseuds/Kazara
Summary: When fate gives you a reset button, would you press it?Golden, his wife, and a number of other ponies and beings were subjected to exactly this when they were forcefully ripped from the Equestria they called home, only to end up in one that they don't understand. The Equestria that they love is long gone, replaced with one where the impossible happens, the walls between dimensions are paper thin, and where beings become far more powerful and influential than they ever really wanted.The explicit tag is there just in case.





	1. The Nameless Entity

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy! This fic will have more words per chapter, for the people that like that sort of thing.

**** A black coated stallion garbed with a soft blanket sits at a wooden desk, looking at a blank page of an empty journal. He turns to the black front cover, staring absently at it, noting how empty and dull it is. With a smile, he dips the tip of a quill into an inkwell, then begins to write on the blank page. He replenishes the ink as needed, and is not bothered by the weak torchlight on the wall in front of the desk. His hoofwriting is kind of messy, but still legible to anyone who cares enough to read it.

 

_ 8/8/0002 _

 

_ Cyrus distributed a metric shitton of notebooks to all of us in this base. Most of us questioned why, and his response was that ‘it would serve as a far better emotional outlet. While talking one-on-one with the other Shadowbornes is effective, sometimes they are just too busy. Besides, it is sometimes good to look back and reflect on good times and mistakes.’ _

 

_ So uh, here I am! I don’t really know where to begin. The past six months have been a rollercoaster of emotions. It started out just plain weird. One moment, I felt absolutely nothing. The next instant, everything around me was loud and bright. I went from smelling nothing to smelling all sorts of things. I smelt the fresh grass, the flowers whose scent was carried by the wind, and I smelt the rain in the air. I felt a broken shell under my ass, and I felt the tickle of grass by my hooves. The first thing I did was giggle at the feeling. A shadow loomed over me and I looked up. The amalgamation of creatures that made up of the guy that created me held me close. His name is Discord, and he absolutely loves chaos. The one thing that he neglected to tell us was about our purpose. _

 

_ Discord did not name me, nor did he say anything about why I was here. Hell, the pony that I came with named himself. He says he was the first, and I don’t have the knowledge to dispute that claim. I wanted to name myself, but I suck at names. Cyrus’ name was very hard for me to remember. _

 

_ Heh… for the first time, an outsider came into our base. The pegasus claimed to represent justice, fire, and even chaos. I like fire and justice. Yet, the strange juxtaposition of order and chaos struck me as very odd and even somewhat endearing. He came with a large black book. The guy titled it ‘The Black Book ‘O Rules’ which made everyone very amused. I’d wager that he has a sense of humor. A sense of humor and charisma can get someone so far in life. His words, not mine. Anyway, we changed from a lawless group to something more… a society. We’re a society now, guys. We made it. The sexless, chaotic, short, and red-eyed horses with no identity made it. Haha, we were born from a CHAOS god of all beings. If my writing sounds elated, that means I am. I get all giddy thinking about all the possibilities. Months and months of not knowing what to do finally ends today. _

 

_ How will daddy Discord take this though? That draconequus always wanted control. I like the guy, and I can’t blame him for wanting control over his own spawn. I don’t have a name or an identity. I… I need one. He didn’t give me one. _

 

_ Peace. _

* * *

 

The pony stops writing, wiping his forehead with a hoof and standing up. He’s small for a Shadowborne. His friend and leader, Cyrus, stands a head taller than him. The pony takes a look around the room. A portrait of Discord holding him with a smile hangs above his bed. He trots over to it, the ring on his back left leg glowing. He levitates up to it. Cyrus created this picture not too long after he saw Discord holding him. Cameras were not invented yet, and the technology was centuries away. He runs a hoof down it, his gaze softening.

 

“How well are you going to take this, Discord?” His voice is soft with a gentle quiver to it. “How… how well?” With a soft sigh, he looks at his other possessions. He does not have much at all. In his room is a table, a chair, and a bed. The bed is just big enough to fit him and one other Shadowborne comfortably. He never imagined anyone else sleeping in it, though. Sighing, he trots to the wooden door and opens it, peering down the hall.

 

“Where to? Cy?” The pony mutters. He shrugs, starting to trot down the hall. Most of the rooms he passes by are empty. Slowly, he makes his way to the center of the base. Cyrus and other high-ranking officials do their business and live in the rooms there. The centermost room is where the leader lives. Once he reaches the center of the base, he is greeted by a group of other Shadowbornes. They are all larger than he is, so he feels quite intimidated by them. He pushes past them and apologises if the others get in his way. 

 

Once through the group, he looks up to see Cyrus and the pegasus that dropped off the rulebook. He catches the tail end of their conversation.

 

“Sorry, but no thanks Cy. Not really my kinda thing,” the blue-eyed, brown-coated; and black-and-red-maned pegasus says with a frown. “Thanks for the offer, though.”  He then growls, motioning towards a scratch on his cheek.

 

“What happened there?” The Shadowborne says. Cyrus has a grey ring, as opposed to the other pony’s gold one.

 

“Discord clawed me. Dumb fuck. It stings, y’know? Permanently disfigured now, all over a fucking book...Ugh. Next time, he’ll meet my good friend, Six.” He motions toward a holstered revolver on his right hind leg. The pegasus is not too sure how he got it far earlier than he should have.

 

Cyrus looks past the stallion and sees the smaller Shadowborne. He smiles as that catches the pegasus’ attention. The Shadowborne nervously takes a step back.  _ Wait, why am I so nervous? _ After looking at the pegasus, the nervousness increases tenfold.

 

The pegasus trots up to the Shadowborne, looking at him from his face to his forehooves. “Heart,” He grunts. Reflecting back at Discord’s scratch put him in a sour mood. Yet, seeing the little Shadowborne lightened the mood just a little. “The name’s Storm. Desert Storm.,” He says. The Shadowborne didn’t say anything. His head was busy putting the pieces together.

 

_ He looked me up and down, then said something. Was that a name? The… the fuck? It took MONTHS for this? _ The Shadowborne, now named Heart is genuinely surprised by this. He is so surprised that Desert has to close Heart’s open mouth. The pegasus chuckles, then trots away and waves at them with a wing before folding it up. His gaze hardens at the thought of the scratch.

 

Cyrus waves back at Desert, gazing back towards Heart. “I see you’re surprised. Don’t be. Everyone has to get a name eventually. Yet, why was he the pony to name you?”

 

Heart shakes his head with a frown. “T-that’s what  _ I’m _ trying to figure out. What did I do to earn this? Hell, why was he here in the first place? Already delivered the damn rulebook. I-I’m not mad at all… just curious as fuck.”

 

“Well, I can answer that second question,” Cyrus pauses. “He was here asking about his gun. Claimed that ah… that he shouldn’t have it by now. I was very  _ very _ confused. Don’t often get this confused. Yeah, I also believe the nice stallion. Told the guy that something felt off about him, which he actually acknowledged. Same for the empathic brother he holds quite close. Felt the same thing from those two. However, there was nothing for Riloxia or Solacia. Anyway, about the gun… well… he said he knew where and when he got it. When he took me to where he got it, the specific things he was looking for wasn’t there. Everything wasn’t there. Not only that, but when I asked for any details that led up to and even after the acquisition, he just stared at me blankly. Poor bastard couldn’t remember anything before or after it. He couldn’t remember using it, and he was even  _ more confused _ when he saw that the chamber was missing a round.”

 

“He didn’t fire off a round?” Heart asks, tilting his head. A shake of the head answers the question easily. With a sigh he says, “Did he load it?”

 

“Didn’t have the ammo, and I could not create it for the life of me,” Cyrus says. “He swears that he did not load it. It was getting on his nerves too since it came with all the rounds loaded.”

 

“What the… what the actual fuck? Sounds like we have a mystery on our hooves,” Heart says, rubbing his head. All these explanations have been giving him a headache.

 

“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” Cyrus says with a chuckle. “I’ll take care of this for you. I know how you get, so don’t even try to fight it.” He assumes Heart concedes by seeing his ears flatten. “Thank you. Now, I’m assuming Desert is getting his brother. He rejected the position I offered him and he offered up someone better. To be honest, I wouldn’t have expected much out of either option.”

 

“Why?” Heart asks with a tilt of his head.

 

“They aren’t really needed right now,” Cyrus says. “We’re at a time of relative peace and our population can easily fit in one base. In fact, since it is right now, I’m the de-facto ruler. Check the records!”

 

Heart frowns, looking around. “But Cy, I don’t have access. That’s above me, and I’m not really that-” He is cut off as Cyrus covers Heart’s mouth.

 

“Shut up, you are. In fact, I’m promoting you. Ponies have been singing your praises for  _ months  _ and you haven’t reaped the rewards,” One of Cyrus’ forehooves glows and he presses it on Heart’s chest.

 

Heart grunts, feeling heat radiate from the hoof. It spreads through his body and concentrates at the ring. It glows and an off-gold stripe appears in the center. It runs around the diameter of the ring. He feels the change and sighs shakily.

 

“Congrats,” Cyrus says with a smile. He offers his hoof and watches as Heart takes it. “You now forward suggestions from other Shadowbornes to me. You also keep track of the population.” Cyrus chuckles. “You’re well on the path of becoming a leader like me!”

 

Heart giggles, feeling pride in himself.  _ I’ve gotten better. Ponies are trusting me more and more. It legitimately looks like I have a shot at doing something with my life. _ He hugs Cyrus tightly and beams at him. Then, the Shadowborne rests his head on Cyrus’ cheek.

 

“Okay friend, you can let go now,” Cyrus says with a chuckle. Heart blinks, apologizes, then releases Cyrus. He paws the ground and shakes his head. “And no, don’t be sorry,” He says.

 

“C-can’t help it,” Heart quips. “I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to intentionally hurt anyone.” He then looks away.

 

Cy’s gaze softens. “I realize that,” He says. “You gotta know when to protect those you love. What if you see them get hurt?”

 

“I-I don’t know what I would do, Cyrus.” Heart closes his eyes and rubs his head. He didn’t even want to entertain the thought that someone would go out of their way to hurt someone else close to him. To him, everything would be all right and nothing would go wrong. “Who would even… harm me? Who would harm you?”

 

Cyrus chuckles. He knew exactly who would have the power to harm them, but he knew Heart would not like the answer.  _ I like the guy, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to hear that Discord has the power to wipe us off the map. He could nuke this place and nopony here would survive. Nopony outside the base would even bat an eye either, save for Desert and his brother, Golden. At least they care. At least they care for each other, too. Besides, when are they coming back. Des said he’d bring him.  _ He shakes his head.  _ Ah well. Be patient. _

 

When Cyrus does not respond, Heart tilts his head. “Is there something on your mind? You’re being awfully quiet. If you don’t want to tell me, then that’s cool too. I know there are some things that are confidential around here.”

 

Cy smiles gently and boops his nose. “And of course, you will get to the point where you can see it all. I know ya can. Everyone says it.”

 

Heart frowns and boops him back. “Bad Cyrus.  _ Bad _ . Don’t boop me, or else there will be consequences,” He smirks at Cyrus and nuzzles his cheek. They are then interrupted by the arrival of both Golden and Desert. Desert’s wing is wrapped around Golden, and they look at  him.

 

Golden stares at Cyrus with his brown eyes. He ruffles his wings in nervousness and smooths back his gold and light blue mane. He then rubs his cheek somewhat nervously, then makes sure none of his dark blue hairs touch the ground. He does not want the floor to be dirtier because of him.

 

Desert lifts his wing, and gently pushes his brother forward. He nods to Cyrus, and Cyrus presses his hoof to Golden’s chest. Cyrus shuts his eyes and focuses as he sends two things into his body. He sends a small chunk of his own DNA into Golden’s body, but he strips all of the identifying information out of it such that it can’t be traced back to Cyrus. After that is finished, he presses his hoof harder onto Golden. Cyrus taps into the chunk of DNA that he sent in and uses it to grant Golden their powers. This naturally causes a lot of pain for the Pegasus. He yips and takes a few steps back.

 

“W-what the fuck?” He asks Cyrus, shaking his head. “What was that? I wasn’t aware this procedure involved pain. Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

“You would shy away from it,” Cyrus says with a sigh. “Des told me that you definitely don’t like pain. Hell, he saw how you got worked up when Riloxia and Solacia bickered over every little fucking thing. To be fair, so did he. Give the powers a good hour or so to set in. Once they do, you’ll feel a little chill, and the ring will form around a hind leg. After that? Come to me and we’ll get you set up.”

 

Golden shakes his head, his head swimming. He growls, then tries to get his bearings. “Right. Right right right okay. Thank you. Time to nap this shit off on a cloud or something.” He smiles and trots away, poking Desert’s side with a wing as he passes by. Desert stares at him blankly, shrugs, then follows him.

 

Cyrus frowns, summoning a checklist from his personal pocket dimension. He reads through it with a hum, then checks off an item titled:  _ Follow what Desert suggests and make his brother a leader.  _ Once he sends the list back to where it came from, he opens a portal and steps through it.

 

As Cyrus is now gone doing his own things, and nothing else is to be done, Heart decides to retire to his room for the time being. He hops onto his bed and chuckles. He isn’t sure about how much further he would go in the Shadowborne ranks.

Cyrus emerges through the portal a few moments later, a similarly-sized Shadowborne trotting alongside him. Cyrus frowns, then shakes his head. “How much longer do we have until Discord wisens up and decides to rip us out of existence? All he has to do is just blast this damned base with his chaos magic. Boom. Out of existence. I’m giving him approximately ten minutes until he gets here.”

 

“Oh you absolutely wonderful piles of fluff. I was never going to give you ten whole minutes,” The draconequus appears in a puff of glitter and pink smoke. He raises a talon to his chin and rubs it. “Now what can I do to you guys? I can turn you into a sheep.” He snaps the talon and the Shadowborne beside Cyrus promptly shifts into a sheep. It then shifts into a bear and swipes at Cyrus in anger. Cyrus leaps to the side and glares at the bear.

 

“Fucking great,” He groans. The bear does not head towards Cyrus, instead electing to stay by Discord’s side. Discord chuckles and points to the bear. It shifts back into a Shadowborne. Said Shadowborne looks very dazed from the sudden transformations. The pony then collapses with a grunt.

 

“Now, are you going to listen to me and do as I say?” Discord smirks at Cyrus. “Or am I going to have to teach you guys a lesson in obedience? You’re  _ my _ creation. If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t even be here!”

 

“I’ll be blunt, Discord,” Cyrus says. “If we are to function properly, we need-”

 

“You don’t need anything,” Discord takes a step further towards him. “Now obey me.”

 

With a sigh and a pause, Cyrus looks at Discord and smiles very softly. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Discord.” He sees Discord’s face contort in rage and is strangely comforted by it.  _ If he gets this angry if he doesn’t get control, then he never cared about us in the first place. _ Cyrus chuckles, forming a pistol and pointing it at the chaos god. He knew it wouldn’t do anything, but he doesn’t really care about that. He depresses the trigger and the bullet phases through Discord.

 

“You were going to attack us anyway, dear daddy,” Cyrus chuckles. “Bet you didn’t expect your own children to grow up this fast. Meh.” The gun crystallizes in his hoof and a vibration courses through it. The gun shatters and causes Cyrus to step back. “Now  _ fuck off _ !” With a stomp of a hoof, Discord is forced out of the base and the base is sent into lockdown. Steel bars block every entrance and emergency exit.

 

Heart sits up and his ear flicks. He receives word of the lockdown, then heads out of his room. Confused ponies poke their head from their respective rooms, questioning why there is a lockdown. Heart makes his way towards Cyrus, who now has three guards surrounding him. Their rings menacingly glow red.

 

“Cy? What the hell is going on?” Heart asks.

 

“Discord happened,” Cyrus says. “That is all. You won’t need to protect me. The guards will watch over me and keep me safe. Go round up a group, and head to the command center. You’re working logistics. There isn’t anyone else I trust with that job. Besides, you’re already amazing at getting others to do what you want. Just go.” Cyrus opens a portal for him and watches Heart step through it.

 

“Take me to safety,” Cyrus says. The guards do exactly that by sending him into a pocket dimension, then sending themselves after Cyrus. Inside the pocket dimension is a white two story house. It floats above empty space. With a flash of bright light, Cyrus and the guards appear on a couch, and a guard turns on the television. On the screen is Heart. The Shadowborne is sitting in a circular room with a number of other ponies. 

 

A wide variety of screens mostly display a map of Equestria with a number of different overlays. One sizable segment of the room is solely dedicated to weather in Equestria. The maps have temperatures, pressures, vectors representing wind, and the largest screen in that segment shows a radar loop over the whole of Equestria. Heart’s section details the locations of every Shadowborne in Equestria. He’s looking at the largest screen in the room and giving guards some orders through a headset. He summons some papers and begins to draft up a plan.

 

“Can’t believe this is actually happening,” Heart grumbles. “Ugh. I get a promotion and terrible shit happens next.” He quickly maps out an area around the base.  _ They are the safest here. The base is good at keeping outsiders outside. Discord is Discord though. I don’t know what he has planned, or if he is colluding with anyone. Do we have intel on that?  _ He taps the quill on the console he sits in front of. “Do we do we do we? Yo,” He unmutes the microphone and starts to speak through it. “Hey Crys, do you have any information regarding Discord’s connections? I want to be sure we are playing this as safe as possible. Not only that, but tell Golden and Desert to get the hell out. I don’t want casualties.”

 

Heart leans back, spawns a cup, and fills it with a spawned coffeepot. He takes a drink and shudders at the very faint generic taste it has. Instant coffee is better than this. “Fuck spawned coffee,” He yawns, then adds more details the map. He uses his magic to press a button on the headset to change who he will talk to.

 

“Yo Mil. Yes, I know you hate that nickname. Would you like me to call you ‘commander of the army’? No? Thought so. I have a map and I’m sending it to you now. Mark it with red ink, then send it back. Thank you. Love and kisses,” He sighs and presses the button again before writing numbers on the map and sending it to the army commander. He switched channels just in time.

 

_ Yeah, I do have information. Uh… I’m not sure exactly how this came under our radar, and I know I’m going to be chewed out by Cyrus for this. _

 

“Do tell,” Heart says. He softens up a bit, the gravity of the current situation setting in. If he was to get ponies to listen, he would have to be less abrasive. Guilt courses through at the thought of the commander being frustrated at him. He sighs and shakes his head. “Please,” He adds.

 

_ The phrase ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ is applicable as fuck here. I know you don’t know this, but a group of unicorns seemingly hold a grudge against us. They don’t have the power to beat us down alone. However, uh… um… _ Crys trails off.

 

“What is it?” Heart leans forward, now becoming nervous. “Is it serious?” Silence on the line is not helping his nervousness. He shifts in the seat as his ears flatten. 

 

_ They can now… uh… destroy us. Their magical capabilities have been augmented by Discord to the point of death if their beams hit us. _ Crys was never going to say how he knew that. The stallion gazes outside the Everfree forest.

 

Instead of Ponyville being a bustling village filled with all sorts of ponies that get along perfectly, Crys just stares out at an empty field. His eyes move toward the mountain that will hold Equestria’s capital city. Unlike Ponyville, there is a budding village of grounded pegasi there.

 

“Two years and this is all we have,” He says with a sigh. “Two years.” With a stomp of his hind leg, a blank piece of paper appears in front of him. He starts to write on it, using his spacebending magic to keep it afloat in the air.

 

_ Twenty, possibly thirty unicorns. No organization whatsoever, but they look strong enough to cause us issues. They have the capabilities to wipe us out even though they are grossly outnumbered.  Surprise attack absolutely has to succeed here or we are screwed. _ He then starts to write more information down, humming softly. He relays information to Heart as he writes.  _ They will likely rally around Discord. I will be expecting them to start to organize further. Yet, why aren’t they getting the jump on us? _ He tilts his head, gazing at the movement across the field.

 

Discord glides across what would become the Ponyville town square. He licks at a talon, then spawns in a long-haired brush. Starting to hum, he gently brushes his paw. The draconequus looks around the field, then chuckles and snaps his talon. A white coated unicorn with blue eyes blasts an Everfree tree. It turns to dust, then catches on fire. Immediately, the fire spreads to other trees. A soft smile comes across Discord’s face as he sees the flames.

 

“Sweet sweet chaos,” He purrs. “If I can’t subdue them properly with my magic, then I will just have to tell others to do it for me.” The draconequus growls as he recalled feeling a very cold sensation, feeling the pain as he tried to fire a beam of literal death and failed. He did not get the memo to calm down. He was not calm since he learned that Desert gave them the lawbook. He scratches his head with his talon.

 

“Funny, I didn’t know he was doing it,” He says. “And I know everything. I was there when everything was being made? Why the secrecy?” He thought that the gods were meant to do everything out in the open. Little did he know that he was right in that assumption. A giant brown book appears right above his head. Gravity takes its hold on it and Discord then receives quite the bump on his head. With a low growl, he looks at the book. The numerous pages and the ink on them are very new. Circled in red is the following passage:

 

_ 08/02/0020 - After listening to his case, Raikia, The Goddess of Life and Love gave Desert Storm permission to create the black rule book for the Shadowbornes. _

 

The book disappears before Discord could properly tear it to shreds. The unicorn trots up to Discord and smiles up at him. He shakes the ash out of his mane. Nodding to the draconequus, his horn sparks and the group of unicorns he came with all get the signal to group up with him.

 

As soon as Crys spots the movement, he withdraws deeper into the Everfree. He speaks as he trots. “Heart, they’re grouping up. It’s your time to shine.” He cuts the channel to Heart, then teleports right next to the forest base. The Shadowborne looks at it fondly. 

 

_ Various pieces of well cut stone fly around the air, carried by a combination of heavy breezes and their own form of magic. Crys did not know how it worked. Yet, he watched the base slowly be built from the ground up and the center out. He watched Cyrus and a Shadowborne he hadn’t met argue civilly over what should be in the centermost room. He figured they disagreed on what was too opulent for that room. After the unknown pony shakes his hooves with Cyrus, he trots over to Crys. He offers his hoof. _

 

_ “Hiya! The name’s Heart!” The pony said. Crys is not exactly sure how to handle it. After a brief moment of internal struggle, he decides to shake the hoof. Heart did not let up with the offering. It was as if he knew ponies would shake the hoof.  _

 

_ “You’re… very persistent, you know that?” Crys says. “The name is Crystal. Just call me Crys. It’s what everyone here calls me anyway.” Crys shrugs. “I saw how you handled Cyrus over there. You have far more patience than I. That is commendable.” _

 

_ “I think you mean normal,” Heart chuckles. “I don’t think that what I do is worth talking about in any way. If I make someone’s day, then so what? There aren’t enough ponies here to both care or think it’s a big deal. Shadowbornes can be patient. They just let work take precedence, which is not a bad thing at all. Less time working and more time with family.”  _

 

_ “If they even have families,” Crys rolls his eyes. “Unless you consider Cyrus as a family member.” He sticks out his tongue. The word ‘family’ is extremely foreign to him. Unbeknownst to him, Heart feels the same way. The smaller Shadowborne shrugs, glancing over at Cyrus. “Why use words foreign to you? Do you even know what family means?” _

 

_ Heart tenses up just a little. He thinks about it for a while, then responds appropriately. “No, I don’t.” He motions over to Cyrus and the group that is constructing the base. He highly doubts the others here know about family. _

 

_ “And friendship?”  Crys continues. _

 

_ “I know about friendship,” Heart quips. “Closer than acquaintances, but not close enough to be coltfriends or marefriends. You have something in common with your friend. Cyrus is my friend. Hell, you can be mine too!” The smaller Shadowborne grins at Crys. Crys returns it with his own smile. He admitted in his head that it was a warm and inviting grin. He even further admitted that Heart seemed like an all-around nice guy, yet he was unsure as to how Heart became Cyrus’ friend. _

 

Crys snaps out of it as five Shadowbornes with red rings appear in front of him. He steps back in surprise, then looks around. He stops looking as he sees the air shimmer a few feet ahead of them. This shimmer extends around the entirety of the base. Crys picks up a rock and tosses it at the visible distortion. The rock is reflected back at him so he makes sure to dodge quickly. 

 

“Sir, we are with you,” One of the Shadowbornes says. Crys does not question Heart’s judgment. Heart’s friend cracks a small smile, nodding and indicating towards the newly erected barrier. He hears fifteen other Shadowbornes pop in next to the guard. Their rings are gold with a red stripe. “

 

“His orders take priority. Everything I say goes through him, okay?” Crys then reopens the connection to Heart. “We only have twenty?”

 

_ Our forces are underdeveloped. I know it’ll be a hard fight. I believe in you, the Guard, and the drafted Shadowbornes though. _

 

“Isn’t this a little excessive from Discord though? Where’s Desert?” Crys frowns as he asks those questions.

 

_ Let’s just say that you now know what chaos does to a guy. As for Desert? The radar showed that they left. This conflict could adversely affect him and his brother. At least, that’s what they told me. We have radar contact. The unicorns are on the forest border and moving in. Two minutes out, okay? _

 

Crys barks out some orders and the Shadowbornes disappear into the forest. Some decided to leap up onto trees, while others decided to take refuge in bushes. Crys himself decides to hop up into a tree. He spawns himself a set of armor. He knew it wouldn’t protect him against the raw magic. The Shadowborne figured that if he had to go, he wanted to go looking cool. He looked out deeper into the forest, then smelled the air.

 

_ Smells… smells like smoke. Wait a minute… they’re burning down the fucking forest. Fuck.  _ He mumbles orders into the mic and the Shadowbornes closest to the unicorns begin their attack despite the flames raging in front of them. Suddenly, a sizable assortment of things began to rain from the sky. Some of the unicorns did not expect this and was hit or crushed by the deluge of stuff. One got a shield up and grunted as a couch crashed into the shield. With a flick of his tail, the couch is obliterated in a blue beam. The blow left the unicorn weakened but very annoyed. He points his horn towards one of the many trees and obliterates it. With a huff, he then starts to wipe out trees that have Shadowbornes in them. As soon as he sees movement, he blasts at it.

 

Crys scowls as he watches a few of the Shadowbornes get blasted out of existence. “This isn’t going well,” He grunts, leaping off the tree as a beam flies right past his face. He spawns a slingshot, fitting it with sizable rocks. He teleports onto another tree as he falls, steadies himself, then fires a rock at a unicorn’s horn just as a spell goes off. As he didn’t know the interaction between a magical discharge from a horn, and anything coming into contact with said horn during that period, he is very surprised at hearing a loud  _ crack  _ and a yell. The unicorn that fired the spell smacks into a tree directly behind him and collapses, unconscious. Crys blinks and shakes his head.

 

“Wait what? Yo, fire things at their horns!” Crys barks. He teleports off the tree as he sees a unicorn fire a spell toward it. The Shadowbornes’ attack changes to become more measured. As the unicorns kept up their forward march, they kept withdrawing and firing things at the attacker’s horns frequently. When Crys sees the unicorns adjust to the sudden change, he varies it yet again. 

 

With a grunt, he spawns in a piano and breaks it into fifteen equally-sized chunks, swiftly firing them at one unicorn. It was quickly overwhelmed, collapsing with a grunt. Crys teleports to it and finishes it off with a measured kick to the pony’s neck. Before he registered what he did, a knife flies out of the chaos in front of him and hits him square in the side. His eyes widen as the pain causes him to tense up. No words come out of his mouth as he peers through the black smoke the new wound is spewing.

 

Crys watches as the Shadowbornes attempt to scatter after a final volley was completely wiped out by a wave of magic. Slowly, he sees each and every one in his sight get struck by beams of varying power and various small weapons. The screams of his fallen comrades ring in his ears, spurring him to try and get up.

 

“F-fall back,” Crys whispers. He himself attempts to teleport away, but failed the moment he tried to manipulate the space around him. He did not quite get what was going on, then came to the stark realization that they were trapped in battle. The unicorns seized the advantage when they spotted it. If Crys sounded the retreat a moment earlier, he would have been able to save them. Crys curls up, starting to shake. _ I failed, _ he thinks, ignoring the voice telling him to stay calm and help was on the way.  _ I failed Heart. I failed my men.  _ Crys shuts his eyes, waiting for the whole conflict to just be resolved. Crys latches onto the fact that he issued an order too late. He wanted perfection, and he definitely did not live up to it.

 

Eventually, the screams and the sounds of cracking wood around him fade away. His tormented mind and body do not register that the battle is over. He tries to move, but that causes him to twitch in pain. Crys grits his teeth, trying to call out for help. His cry did not fall on deaf ears.

 

“Where is he? W-where? O-oh god, Crys!” He dimly registers a pair of hooves wrapping around him. A faint gold glow envelops him as he is lifted off the ground. He stares straight into Heart’s eyes. What he sees pains him more than any knife wound ever can. What meets his gaze is sadness, pain, and anger. Crys has never seen Heart so angry. He has never even seen Heart remotely upset about anything. He coughs, then cries out sharply as pain courses through his body.

 

“S-shh Crys. Shh… I got you. You’re in good hooves.  _ CYRUS, GET A MEDICAL TEAM OUT HERE! WE HAVE A SURVIVOR!  _ The… the only one,” Heart trails off as he looks back towards the empty clearing that held the base. A few moments ago, Heart was trying hard to contain his joy at seeing Crys figure out a legitimate strategy. Reality set in as he watched the unicorns beat back the attack, and sorrow and distress set in as he watched his friends and partners get slaughtered. Eventually, he had to come to the hard decision of sending the base away. If the unicorns came in, the few that remain behind would have died. Heart knew that Cyrus would have approved of the action if he was around.

 

Three Shadowbornes appear around Heart. They then take Crys from him and teleport back to the base. Heart sighs shakily and sits down. He stares at the burnt grass at his hooves, then casts his gaze to the burnt trees. The only sound Heart hears is the sound of his breathing. His gaze shifts to where he saw friends of his fade away. He stands up, trotting over to where his gaze fell. He leans against a burnt tree trunk and stares at the scorch mark the magic left. He lays a hoof in a larger hoofprint and closes his eyes. A breeze blows through his coat and he growls at it. He then stomps the hoofprint, trying to calm himself. 

 

“You couldn’t do shit, Heart,” Heart mutters. “You fucking tried.  _ FUCK _ !” He tears up and lays on the scorch mark. He could not get the images out of his head, no matter how hard he tried. His sadness gives way to a pang of fear. Though he knew the thought was irrational, he doubted that Crys would survive the stab wound. Heart looks up at the sky and sighs softly. “Fuck.”

 

A small breeze and the  _ pop _ of a teleportation alerts him to the presence of another pony. He glances towards the source and spots a pink coated and maned alicorn. The mare stares sadly at the destruction around her.

 

“It didn’t have to be like this,” She says, her voice soft. She trots over to Heart and hugs him tightly. “I did the most I could do, dear Heart.”

 

Heart returns the hug, always gladly accepting them. He nods and rests his head on her neck. “N-now who are you?” He asks her, trying to hold it together. He tries to relax as she strokes his back.

 

“My name is Raikia, and I’m the goddess of life and love,” She sighs softly before Desert appears next to her. “I-I know you met my brother.” She lets him go and takes a step back. “I-I can’t bring your friends back, man. I’m sorry.” Her ears flatten.

 

When Heart hears this, he nods. “It’s kind of what I expected. No souls or anything, and I highly doubt that is in your power. I-I’ll take this loss as well as I can.” Heart paws softly at the ground, staring back at the scorch mark. “W-we all will.”

 

“If you need anything, just let me know,” Raikia says. She kisses his cheek, strokes at it, then teleports away. Desert trots up to him and Heart didn’t even look at the stallion. The Shadowborne paws again at the scorch mark.

 

“Hey,” Desert grunts. Heart turns his gaze to Desert and tilts his head a bit. The stallion then pulls him into a hug. This surprised Heart greatly, as he didn’t think Desert was the type to just randomly hug ponies. He could tell that Desert felt bad though. Heart leans into the hug, taking solace in the unusual heat emanating from the stallion. He shuts his eyes and nuzzles at his neck. It felt like the right thing to do at the moment. “Relax, alright?” Desert says softly. Once Desert lets go of Heart, he turns and then flies away.

 

Heart takes a step forward, looking at him as he flies away. He blinks in confusion, wondering why he liked the hug so much more than any other hug he received. He looks down at his chest, trying to quell the feeling of nervousness.

_ Why am I so nervous? _ He thinks with a frown.  _ W-why am I feeling these things? A-am I alright? I… I don’t know anymore. _ Even more confused, he glances at the direction Desert went. The Shadowborne felt a pang of soft longing, then another pang of nervousness. He shakes his head and rubs it. “G-get it together, Heart. C-c’mon man. Y-you’ll see him again, right? R-right?” He steps back as doubt seeps through him. He growls and shakes his head harder. “F-fucking hell. Why am I feeling like this?’ Before this train of thought could add irritation to the already long list of emotions he is experiencing, he teleports to a pocket dimension.

 

Surrounding Heart is the infinite darkness of the void. He pops into existence right next to their base, which is suspended very close to the theoretical center of the dimension. Cyrus stands on the center of the roof. As soon as he detects Heart, he teleports down to him. He has a look of concern on his face.

 

“We’re running out of options,” Cyrus explains. He licks his hoof and smooths back his mane, glancing at the base. “We can’t just send our base back there anymore. The unicorns seemingly placed down wards as we were fighting them. We got the base out in time though.”

 

“Well, we can’t just stay here!” Heart says, shifting a bit. He’s still fighting back his emotions, and that is easily picked up by Cyrus.

 

“I know. What’s up, Heart? We have all the time in the world here.” Cyrus spawns Heart and himself a chair, then promptly sits in his. Heart glances at the chair, shrugs, then sits on it. He looks into Cyrus’ eyes and sighs.

 

“I’m nervous, scared, and confused,” Heart admits. “And it came after well… after Desert gave me a hug.”

 

“Wait, he hugged you? As in all two forelegs?” Cyrus leans forward, shocked at this revelation. “Are you serious?”

 

“Dead serious, Cy,” Heart says. His gaze softens and he sinks a bit in his chair. “A-after the battle, I c-couldn’t help but be sad. M-my friends and partners died, man. C-Crys might go too. I-if he does, then I-I don’t know what I-I’ll do! A-anyway, a m-mare gave me a hug, and so did Desert. I-I liked his hug and the h-heat. O-oh god the heat. I-it was warmer than my blanket!” He giggles, getting somewhat flustered now. He shakes his head. “G-get a hold of yourself!”

 

“Heart? Heart…” Cyrus gets up and places a hoof on his shoulder. “Chill. You’re getting worked up over little things. Do you need to lay down?”

 

“I’m fine,” Heart huffs and shakes his head. “Just f-fine. A-anyway u-uh… I-I felt a strange sense of longing when he left.”

 

“Longing? The hell?” Cyrus asks. He tilts his head. “Why would you feel that? You and him only met one other time.”

 

“T-the hug. T-the heat, man. I felt w-warm and comfortable. My blanket was the only thing that provided me with heat and comfort. You aren’t very warm. Hell, nobody here is.” He places a hoof on Cyrus, not feeling a lot of heat coming out of him. It was the one thing he missed. “He provided warmth during times of need. I-I have to repay him.” Heart looks back and tries to stand, only to be stopped by Cyrus.

 

“And you will repay him. Sadly, that time will be later.” Cyrus’ gaze hardens. “I’m sorry to have to bring it back to this subject, but we have an executive decision to make. As we can’t bring back the base, and we definitely can’t construct a new one there, we have to think outside the box.”

 

“Since when couldn’t we?” Heart asks in surprise. “Since fucking when?”

 

“They know what to look for,” Cyrus’ tail flicks in agitation. “If we were to reconstruct a base, we’d be wiped out. The gods know this, I know this, and you know this. We have to decide whether or not to enact Article twenty-four.”

 

Heart’s mind draws a blank at the mention of the article. He wasn’t fond of memorizing them at all, so he skipped over them thinking that he did not need them. After a few moments of confusion, Cyrus sighs and facehoofs.

 

“During times of great need, I have the ability to consolidate the race. It will save us from extinction, but it can only be acted once. norder to do this, we need an easily enchanted object. What’s easily enchanted?” Cyrus stares at Heart, wondering if he knew the answer.

 

“Runes, natural things, and various trinkets? Things that the gods hold close?” Heart answers, thinking back to where he learned such things from Crys. Heart’s ears flatten as he recalls what Crys taught him. His mind drifts back to Crys’ health, and then he falls back into the post-battle slump.

 

“Exactly. Golden has one, so we will use that,” Cyrus quips. “I will explain our situation, and will return with it when he gives it to me.”

 

“You sound pretty confident there, Cy. I trust you though.I’ll be in the hospital room if you need me.” Heart teleports into the base, then makes his way towards the hospital. As soon as he reaches the north-western corner of the base, he knocks on the door clearly marked “Hospital”, then opens the door.

 

Crys lies on one of the three beds. His side is bandaged up and he appears to be sleeping. His chest slowly rises and falls. Heart trots over and sits next to the bed. A doctor trots up to Heart and frowns at him.

 

“He will recover,” The doctor says. “The stab wound did not pierce anything vital. Far from it. It looks like the pony did not want him dead, only incapacitated. Perhaps for the purposes of capture or fair trial. Who knows? Anyway, I will clear him as soon as possible. I heard Cyrus wants to enact the article. I would call it a foolish move it we were in any other situation. Let him rest,” The doctor trots away. Heart did not leave Crys though. He rests his hoof on Crys’ chest and sighs.

 

As he watches Crys’ chest rise and fall, he reflects back on what exactly he felt when he hugged Desert. He would have to ask ponies about the more intimate emotions that they feel. He isn’t quite sure what to think of these combinations of emotions. He would ask Golden if it wouldn’t put him at risk for capture or death by the unicorns that attacked their base. Heart shakes his head and grunts.

 

“Won’t get my answer for a while, it seems.” He mutters. “Damn.” He spawns a glass of orange juice and downs it in one gulp. Heart did not care one bit for alcohol. He tried it one day and did not like what he tasted. He closes his eyes and sighs, waiting for Cyrus to return. He gets his wish a few moments later when he feels a hoof press down on his head. A notebook with a gold colored cover hits the ground next to Heart.

 

“We’re ready,” Cyrus says. “I can’t transport many ponies through. Me, you, Crys, and like three others if they so wish.”

 

“What about you?” Heart asks.

 

“Fuck me. Don’t worry about me, okay? I’ll be fine.” Cyrus waves his hoof and spawns a piece of paper. He quickly scribbles on it and sends it throughout the base. He wishes to get a list of ponies that want to come. To his shock, it comes back empty. He looks at it in confusion. Surely some ponies would have wanted to come with. “Not sure if… depression or if they want to live out their lives alone.”

 

“May I remind you that we  _ just _ fought a battle that ponies died in. I don’t blame them if they wanted to stay here. Maybe they can… I dunno… make history or something. Maybe they can hide away and disguise amongst the villagers outside of the forest. Let them go, Cy. Let them be free. You made your choice. I… just made mine. I’m coming with.” Heart hugs him.

 

“Are ya sure? You’re going to… well… forget everything you learned here. Go get your notebook and take it with you. This process is going to put you in stasis. You’ll be somewhere in the void between life and death. We all will be toeing this line. Where will you be going? Inside me, of course.” He winks at him and sends Heart to his room. “Literally.” Cyrus sits down, starting to focus.

 

The very first thing Cyrus does is kick everyone that wasn’t going out of the pocket dimension. He then starts to work on breaking down the base. Black smoke begins to rise up from the hospital floor and it sinks inside Cyrus. What remains is the same void that exists outside the base’s walls. This process seems to pain him more as he slowly increases the radius of the disintegration. As soon as it hits Crys, he fades, but his life is preserved. As the smoke flies into him, he gasps and tenses up. This clearly was not good for him, but he continues on. Once Heart returns with his notebook, he is promptly taken by the disintegration.

 

To Heart, the disintegration felt like nothing. One moment, he saw Cyrus. The next, his vision, hearing, breathing, and most of the other senses all cut out at the same time. He only felt his orientation in space, and he only heard his own thoughts. Heart did not feel like he was one being. Instead, he felt like he was spread out over far more space than he was meant to. As this process was painless, he did not cry out. He felt himself suddenly accelerate towards Cyrus, and as he enters, his last thoughts ring through his mind before the rest of the senses are cut:

 

_ Shit. What have I gotten myself into? _

 

Cyrus tenses up further as he feels Heart enter him. He lets out a shaky breath as the feeling eventually subsides. He now focuses on the rest of the base. He ignores the growing pain inside his chest. As the radius gets bigger, so does the absorption rate. Once all of the smoke enters him, Cyrus reaches for the notebook and presses his hoof into it. His body glows and he seals off the process by sealing himself into the notebook. When he cried out in pain, nobody was able to hear it. As soon as he touches the pages, he seals himself in a pocket dimension. He places it between the back page and the back cover, then falls into a deep slumber.

 

_ Will I ever see the light of day? Will… will we? I don’t know anymore. Goodnight world. May I see you soon… sweet sweet Equus. _

 


	2. Enter Kazara

_12/31/1580 ~ The mountains of the Crystal Empire_

A strong gust of wind blows some snow into a cave, where it promptly melts at the hooves of a cloaked pony. Poking out of the cloak is a black tail and a pair of bat wings.

“1580. A lot has changed in that period,” The pony says gruffly. “Some would argue that too much has changed.”

Over the 1560 year period, Equestria and the Crystal Empire has gone through several kings and a few princesses. Celestia has had the task of raising and lowering the sun for several centuries, and the stress behind that caused her to pass some undesired laws. Naturally, this caused a chunk of the population to leave the country. They were received well with the crystal ponies that lived in the Crystal Empire.

The pony recalls a rather distressing period of time where a rogue family of unicorns were steadily raising dead ponies back to life and used them to make attacks against Canterlot. The pony also seen whole civilizations rise and fall. One such civilization resonated well with him. A shadowy ball appears on his hoof, and he throws it outside where it fades away. Shadow magic wasn't as controversial as its darker counterpart. The common pony understood how illegal dark magic was, but they never understood the grey areas revolving around shadow magic. The pony also understood that other ponies feared chaos magic as well. Discord did not help the fear one bit. He wagers that the civilization he liked also didn't help with the general population’s understanding of shadow magic.

When the pony takes a look around the cave, his eyes fall onto a lone light blue egg just sitting on the cave floor. The egg is around a foot tall and 3 inches wide at its widest point. He sticks a hoof out towards it, feeling the heat of a developing dragon. He runs a hoof over the scaled shell. 

_A dragon's egg is valuable. They go for thousands of bits. I could get rich off of it,_ He tilts his head and chuckles at that thought. _But what's the point?_ He opens up a pouch strapped to his side and sticks his hoof in. He only feels a few bits. The stallion did not need the money. His gaze turns to the outside of the cave.

_Where did the parents go?_ He thinks, getting somewhat disturbed by the notion of an egg sitting there with no parents. _What happened to them?_ He trots out of the cave and kneels in the snow. When he scans the ground for tracks, he realizes that he finds none. After a grunt of annoyance, he trots back in the cave.

Sitting back down at the egg, he looks around at his surroundings. Upon closer inspection, he sees that the walls have scratches that run deep. He also notices that the dust around the egg is thinner than the dust everywhere else.

_So they were here. How long though? There is dust, but that does not bode well. If… if there wasn't, then I would have an annoyed dragon couple to deal with. Were… were they hunted down?_ He shakes his head, remembering that it was legal to hunt dragons. The scales were often used as an insulator. With them, drinks can stay warm for ages. _Bastards. Don't they know that they're fucking endangered now? If they die out, then the ponies deserve whatever Manticore attacks that come. I hope all the hunters fucking die off. Nopony fucks with the natural order._ The batpony shivers in rage.

“Nopony.” He says bluntly. He groans and spreads out his wings. He flaps them and bites his lip. His wings were stiff with the lack of use. He glares at the egg, half angry at the ponies, and half angry at the situation that caused the hunting. The dragons didn't know any better. He remembered ponies going into the Dragonlands and taking their resources for their own gain.

“If the egg hatches, then the baby dies if it isn't protected,” He grunts, laying down by the egg. “That shit doesn’t sit right with me. If I won’t do it, nobody will.” Feeling obligated to take care of the egg, he gently wraps his hooves around it and cuddles close to it.

“You're gonna grow up to be good and strong,” He strokes the egg. “You're gonna survive. I like survivors. I feel like I'm gonna like you. Now… how long have you been here?” He sniffs it. “The dust implies that you’ve been here at least a few weeks. It's a fucking miracle that you weren’t taken away.” The unnamed stallion wraps a wing around it. The heat seeps through the wing and circulates through his body.

_A dragon needs a name that will be spoken for years after he dies. If… if he dies under my watch though, I won't forgive myself._ His gaze softens as his hoof drifts to his pouch. He winces and looks at it. _Even now, I still take the blame. Where did I go wrong? Ruby… where did I fail you? I should have died there. Yet… yet you did the right thing. I love you._ The stallion finishes off his train of thought by circling his chest with his hoof. _May you rest well._

He turns his attention to the entrance to the cave. “The Crystal Empire will be sympathetic to my cause.” His hoof shimmers and he touches the egg. The shimmer transfers to the egg and causes it to blend in with its surroundings, effectively turning it invisible.

“Be back in a bit… Kazara,” The pony looks back fondly at the egg. He never imagined that he would name someone, much less do it in his native tongue. _You're the light in the shadows, my friend. The light… in the shadows._ He departs the cave, confident that his concealment would work.

Once he sticks his hoof in the snow, it sinks down to the middle of his foreleg. Immediately, he shivers in the cold it brings him. He forms a set of snowshoes, then uses them to slowly make his way through the snow. The stallion navigates down the gentle slope that makes up the very base of the mountain the cave runs through.

_The yaks are nice_ , he thinks casually. The yaks up north were generally kind to him. Even though there were a few exceptions, they did not detract from the good time he had there. Comparing the yaks to the ponies didn't make sense to him. One species had different traditions than the other, and both species were kind to him. At this point, he wasn't sure if they all liked him because of how he carried himself, how he treated them, or how they viewed him. He made a good effort to be kind to them. The crystal ponies treated him well too.

“The queen knows me,” He says. “The queen will be sympathetic to me. She has a kind heart.” The crystal ponies in general have kind hearts. They treated him kinder than the yaks and the Equestrian ponies.

Through the blowing snow, he sees shiny buildings in the distance. Eager to get to the Crystal Empire, he picks up the pace. He shakes the snow off his cloak grunting as a cold breeze hits him in the face.

The gates to the Crystal Empire are wide open. He trots through the open walkway and gazes at the street. Cobblestone lines the street, and warm street lamps cast white light on them. His gaze turns toward the castle in the center of the city. It looks warm and inviting to him, yet it doesn't really interest him too much. He finds his immediate surroundings much more interesting though.

Despite the cold air, ponies are happily outside conversing with one another and carrying a variety of goods. The smell of hot chocolate fills the air as he passes by a cafe. He looks into the window, seeing ten ponies enjoying coffee, hot chocolate, and different flavors of pastries. His stomach growls and he sighs heavily. He hasn't eaten in a few days and he is just now feeling the hunger.

_Focus on the objective. I can feed later._ As he heads closer to the castle, there is a noticeable increase in guard presence. He glances at the crystal armor seeing the reflection from the lights and wondering how impressive it would be when the sun shines on it. Though it looks heavy, the guards have no trouble moving around when it is on. The cloaked stallion wishes that he felt comfortable in it. His temporary job at Canterlot merely reminded him that a suit of light armor frustrated him quite a bit.

One of the guards looks at him and waves. “Hello there Mercury. Long time no see!” The cloaked pony scowls and ignores the guard even though the guard knew his name. He considers himself lucky that he was on a first name basis with at least a few guards. Mercury motions to a guard further down the path and asks him to open the door to the castle. He thanks the guard and trots into the grand hall.

The red carpet, though soft on his hooves, contrasted with the nice heat he felt in the air. He hated it when his hooves get cold. He steps into a sizable circular room. Wrapping around it is two sets of stairs. They stop at the second floor, which appears to be the throne room. At the back of the room is a set of stairs going down. He chooses to head up.

Facing him is a large set of double doors. The knobs were made out of diamond. The clear gems in the door catch the light and refracts it. He looks at the various reds, greens, and purples that result from the refraction. Mercury knocks on the door, and he opens it up when he is told to enter.

On the throne is the princess of the Crystal Empire. She peers at Mercury with her blue eyes and smiles softly at him. The pink coated mare trots away from her throne to greet Mercury.

“Greetings, Mercury,” she says with a nod. “I trust Celestia has treated you well?”

“Yes Princess,” Mercury bows, losing his formality when he hugs her. “How goes it?”

“Celestia’s policies have caused quite the economic boom here. It is true that what doesn't benefit one ultimately benefits the other. We have also sent envoys to the Dragonlands with messages of peace. They don't like ponies anymore. I am betting that the hate will fade eventually.” The princess smiles warmly at him. “Are you staying here for the celebration of a new year?”

Upon hearing the question, his face shifts into one of conflict. “Ah… about that. I have a little… uh… issue.”

“An issue? Do tell, Mercury.” The princess sits down.

“You have a dragon egg in your land,” Mercury says bluntly. The princess's eyes widen at that revelation. She tenses up and looks at the guards in the throne room.

“Guards! Leave the room. We have sensitive details to discuss!” She spreads a wing, wrapping it around Mercury and leading him to her throne. She sits on it and nods at him to sit down. As he does, she takes one last look around the room.

“I really hope you aren't lying. Take me there.” She says. Her gaze is surprisingly steely. A portal forms behind Merc.

“As you wish.” He stands, nods, then leads her through the portal. They arrive right next to the egg. With a whisper, the egg uncloaks. To keep it warmer than usual, Mercury curls up around it.

“That is very interesting,” The mare admits. “I admit that I was skeptical at first. A dragon egg in these troubled times is a genuine rarity. Catching them in the act can be even rarer.”

Mercury blinks and shakes his head. The imagery she gave him makes him uncomfortable. He coughs. “I would imagine so. Uh… what do I do? This is your jurisdiction and I will defer to your judgment.”

“Where are the parents?” Her gaze turns to the egg.

“Gone. I presume they are dead,” Merc says quickly.

“So we have an orphan,” She mutters. “Great… just great. Right… uh… that is a problem. Next question. How long has it been here?”

“At least a week or more,” He admits. “The parents were gone for that long. The dust and the lack of tracks. I doubt they fly in and out of the cave. The egg is four feet from the damn entrance. I assume they cared enough to land outside the cave. See claw marks on the walls? They are way deeper than usual. Normally, they’d scratch it lightly to sharpen their claws. This shows a sign of conflict.”

“Yet the hunters would have tranquilized them,” She softly quips. “Probably got magic to take them out of the cave too. Perhaps that was some conflict between the husband and wife. Perhaps their last. That might explain how deep the scratches go. Look… Merc,” She places a hoof on his back. 

Mercury is shaking. He really did not need someone to tell him the methods of hunting them. That only pissed him off.

“Merc, what have you done thus far?” She asks him flatly. “I would like to go through official channels.”

“The moment I saw the egg, I attempted to search for the parents. That failed miserably and so I gave up with that. I then returned and thought about selling it. That thought kinda repulsed me. That shit was thrown right out. I searched for tracks and the front of the cave for signs of anything. After that? I… made a choice. I'm taking care of it.”

“Officially?” She asks.

“Officially. I am aware that I will be listed as the birth father. The dragon will imprint to me anyway,” He grunts.

“Indeed. Now… uh.” She licks her lips. “We might need to find parents for the dragon. Did you name it?”

“It's a male. Kazara,” Mercury says. “Finding parents who will take care of him will be impossible. Territoriality is a bitch, plus most the families have babies anyway. I don't know if there is a way I can help him get parents.”

“Create them,” She says coolly. “Even if he might not see them as parents, he will need hard scales to bite into.”

“Isn't that wrong?” Mercury asks.

“What will you do for the survival of a species we don't know about? Do you want to do this or not? Parenting is a series of hard decisions with nebulous outcomes. Foals can find parents. Ponies have empathy. Dragons? I fear that the empathy was stripped due to those fucks that crossed their borders.” The mare explains. “Dragons are all about family. The baby will defend you to the ends of the earth.”

“Do I want to do this? Yeah but-”

“No buts! Yes, or no?”

“I…” Mercury then sighs. “I do. Ever since the… the incident, I want to protect those who can't protect themselves.”

“The… incident?” She asks, tilting her head.

“I lost my best friend. Wasn't just my best friend too. We were partners. Red dragon named Ruby. She leapt in the the way of a magical ray and was promptly destroyed.” Mercury explains, sighing heavily and looking at the floor. He continues with a lowered voice. “Mages are s-something else. I still wake up sweating and crying. Didn't think something could get so cold. Fuck. I needed her.” 

“O-oh…” The princess says. “Oh god, I'm so sorry.” She pulls him into a tight hug. “It must be… hard to wake up.”

“It is. It is very hard to wake up some mornings.” Mercury admits. “This… this will help me. Seeing a baby dragon pop out of that egg will set things right with the world. One death and one birth. Perfect balance and harmony. I think we are done here. What are you going to do?”

“I am going to need to register you both in the logs. I have your names. I am going to need a place you all are going to stay. Also, I need the names of the dragons you will create,” The princess smiles before trotting through the portal. Mercury gives the egg another stroke before cloaking it and following her.

With a small burst of wind, Mercury closes the portal. He watches as the princess trots out of the throne room. With her gone, he can now focus on the room around him. Mercury begins to wander around the throne room.

A painting of the princess leaning against a castle wall catches his eye. She looked younger back then. She looks at Mercury with a soft foal-like gaze. The mare dons a gold crown that doesn't really fit her head. Mercury winces as he notices that the crown is rubbing against her horn. _Surely she took it off after the painting was finished. I like the warm colors on this one. Huh. It's a shame I go here under cloud cover._ Moving along the wall, his gaze falls upon an ariel painting of the city. All the roads lead to the castle. It looks a lot smaller than it does now. The shopping district is more compact, and upon very close inspection, the cobble looks much rougher. A date and the subject is scrawled on the bottom of the painting.

_6/12/1201 The 250th anniversary of the Crystal Empire._

_Hm… so not much growth has occurred since then._ He muses, looking at the next picture. It depicts a slightly larger Crystal Empire 250 years later. The roads themselves look slightly nicer, but not much has changed overall. _Damn Tia._ He growls. _Or am I just blaming someone for the lack of growth over that period? I really like this place._

Once Mercury hears hoofsteps, he snaps out of his thoughts and turns to the mare that made them. She drops two papers on the floor in front of them. Everything was filled out on them except for the name of the father, the location of the home, and the names of everyone who will live there. She offers him an already inked up quill. _Mercury. Good, I know my name. The cave is to the north, and the names? Frostwing and Gladys._ He writes down all the required information, copies it for the second sheet, then gives both to the mare. She takes it and giggles.

“Why thank you,” She says. “I will give this to the archivist. Welcome to the Crystal Empire!” 

“I never got your name,” Mercury quips.

“ Princess Melody,” She smiles. “My husband is away, and my kid is in her crib.”

“Next princess?” He asks her. Melody answers with a nod. “Thank you for your time! I finally feel like I'm going to make a difference.”

“You most definitely will. I will dispatch guards to your cave,” She says. “They will be out of sight and out of mind. Peace.” She hugs him and trots out of the room. Mercury teleports back to the cave.

Teleportation and flight was always a limited thing for him. He only kept a certain amount of locations in his mind, and that only worsened when Ruby died. Mercury did not want to touch the sky since she died either. It made him feel sick to his stomach and worsened his nightmares. He just hoped that Kazara would help him through this.

Mercury picks up the egg and uncloaks it. He holds it close and sighs softly. “I need you here,” He whispers. His hoof trails towards the top of the egg. It felt thinner up there. Mercury quickly discards the thought of magically speeding it up. _That's unnatural,_ He shakes his head. _So very unnatural._ _I want him to be good._ Mercury whispers more soft things to the egg. He tilts his head when he senses movement inside it. After detecting that the dragon moved closer to his hooves, his heart flutters in excitement.

“Oh my god, it's really happening. H-he knows I'm here,” Merc sniffles and holds the egg closer. “H-hello there, little guy. H-hi!” He relaxes when he shuts his eyes. “Y-you are alive. Stay alive for me o-okay?”

Mercury’s mind soon turns to other things. Estimating the amount of time for a dragon egg to hatch is very difficult. It all depends on the amount of heat the egg receives, how protected it is, and the mood of the baby inside it. The more time it spends in favorable conditions, the more it wants to break free. Occasionally, one would hatch in unfavourable conditions if its life is on the line. The dragon inside him touches a claw to the softer inner shell where Mercury's hoof is. He is well aware of his presence, as he was dimly aware of his long gone birth parents. The hatchling is warm in Mercury's hooves. It shifts again somewhat strongly. The urge to break through the shell starts to grow.

“Relax… relax little hatchling. The sun will soon shine in your eyes,” He coos. “Gain your strength, so you won't tire yourself. I may be no dragon, but I see how beautiful they can be. It's a fierce beauty. My kind of beauty, to be fair.” He rests his head very softly on the egg and sighs. “Always has been.” The stallion feels a pang of drowsiness, but shakes it off with a shake of his head. Sleep comes at the worst times for him. It wasn’t about to take him today. Dark smoke begins to gather outside, and he watches as two dragons are slowly formed. Unlike the dragons from the Dragonlands, these dragons are quadrupeds. They look essentially identical, with only scale and eye colors as differences. The male is purple scaled with blue eyes, and the female is blue scaled with purple eyes.

“Now,” Mercury says. “I would definitely like you two to watch over this little dragon. This little dragon is going to grow up to be strong and kind. You will be his parents, as I fear the worst for his biological parents.” He looks towards the egg and rubs it gently. The two dragons nod and move closer to him. Mercury rests his head on the egg. _Uncle Merc is going to take good care of you_ , _and so are your parents_. He thinks, before yawning and slowly drifting off to sleep.

Mercury shifts a bit when he feels the paw of Gladys, the dragoness, on his back. Gladys shifts Mercury over to her, and with him, the egg. She lays next to him and Frostwing, the male, lays on the other side of him. He drapes his tail over Mercury’s back and purrs ever so softly. The stallion curls up slightly, groaning softly. When he settles down, he smiles softly and sleep manages to come faster for him. Gladys and Frostwing keep a close eye on Mercury as he sleeps.

* * *

As the day turns into night, a thin film of smoke pools on the ground. It starts to build up, slowly creating an outline of an earth pony. Seeing the smoke, the dragons lift their heads and growl right at it. Frostwing stands and glares right at the smoke, seemingly ready to strike at any moment. When the smoke clears, a dark purple stallion shakes his head and grunts. He swiftly recovers and looks at the dragons. He flashes a smile right at the dragons and it’s as if all the tension in the air goes away. Something in that gaze causes Frostwing to stand down and go back to laying with Gladys and Mercury.

The stallion chuckles and trots over to Frostwing. _I am certainly surprised he recognized me._ He shivers gently as his gaze turns to the egg. He carefully navigates around the two dragons, Mercury, and the egg, only to sit down behind the egg. He runs a hoof over it and gasps softly, shuddering and closing his eyes. 

“Yes,” The stallion softly sighs. Gently, he extends a mental probe towards the egg and uses it to get a read on the being inside. He eyes Mercury and shivers as the information comes through.

_Strength… strength and what else? Longing? Ooh yes… the longing,_ He licks his lips in glee. A tingle runs through his body and he grunts. The gentle shift in magic was barely sensable by him. It made him happy all the same though. His attention turns to Mercury after he hears a soft groan. He withdraws his hoof from the egg and watches the batpony wake up. A quick probe into his mind shows that he too detected the magic shift.

Mercury’s eyes widen as he sees the stallion. “A-Atraxa?” He quickly sits up. The earth pony raises his hoof and Mercury says nothing more. A gentle cracking sound fills the air. With a gentle gasp, Mercury turns his gaze to the egg and notices that a small crack an inch long runs down starting from the top of it. A single black claw pokes through the shell. This is followed by a second one poking in next to the one that just came out. Mercury glances at Atraxa.

“This will take a while,” Atraxa remarks. 

Mercury blinks when he leans back, then sighs. “Right… forgot, sorry. Got my hopes up.” His ears flatten a bit. “What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be watching over a-anyone else that might have survived?”

“I’ve been doing that,” Atraxa says. A silver colored key appears in front of Atraxa’s forelegs. He nudges it over to Mercury. Mercury takes the key only to stare at it and tuck it away. He already knew why Atraxa was giving the key to him. He makes a note to take care of whatever Atraxa wishes to do once the dragon is born. Atraxa then hugs Mercury and nestles his head under the batpony’s chin.

“I know you haven’t been getting much support after your partner died,” Atraxa whispers. “I know I’ve been silent about it. Depressingly watching my creations slowly eliminates my will to socialize. To be honest, I don’t know how they’ll get out of this. I can’t find a way for them to survive. You tried your hardest, and I admire that.” Mercury gently rubs at Atraxa’s mane and cheek. A few more cracking sounds pierce the air. “I… admire that. You needed someone to fill the gap for so long.” Atraxa breaks the hug, allowing Mercury to get close to the egg. There are a few more cracks at the top of the egg and another one running down the side opposite to the first cracks. _Oh my god, is it happening?_ His thoughts come fast and irrationally. He dispels the thoughts with a swift shake of the head and tells himself that it would still take time for the egg to hatch. Again, he holds down the urge to speed it up.

_C’mon Merc, you’re better than this. You are way better than this._ Mercury growls. He then calms himself when Atraxa rubs his mane gently.

“You’re excited. I thought you would have learned to tone down such things,” Mercury’s creator says with a sigh. He then shakes his head and chuckles. “Guess not.”

“I cannot stop comparing him to her,” Mercury says. “I cannot, even if I try my hardest.”

“He isn’t even born yet. He hasn’t looked at the world around him. Mercury, he won’t be Ruby.” 

With a sigh, Mercury rolls his eyes. “Yeah, no shit. I… I’m painfully aware of that, thank you very much.” Atraxa shifts away from Mercury a bit as he detects Mercury’s mood darkening. 

Atraxa looks down at his forelegs. “Look I… I’m sorry. I know you’re defensive over this. I know how you-”

“You don’t, so don’t try and pull that shit with me,” Mercury shivers. “Do you even know how it feels to lose someone that was a part of you? Not in the figurative sense, but _literal._ ” Atraxa’s gaze snaps right to Mercury. Initially, it’s unreadable when Mercury looks into his eyes. As it softens, Mercury shifts a bit uncomfortably.

“You… you’re all a part of me. Whenever anyone dies, or gets hurt, a part of me get harmed with it. Yes, yes I know how it feels.” Atraxa sighs, feeling as if he overstayed his welcome. When he shifts away, Mercury’s ears flatten slightly.

“Then I must apologize. You know how I get sometimes. It’s no excuse, I know,” Mercury says softly. “I never thought about it in-”

“Shh, don’t continue with that,” Atraxa shakes his head. “Please? Focus on the bigger things. Turn it away from me, and especially away from yourself.” He indicates to the egg. A louder cracking noise is heard as the dragon inside works on the cracks he previously made. A moment later, a small and blue scaled dragon head smashes out from the top of the egg. His eyes are closed, but the expression on his face shows that he is winded.

Gladys lifts and tilts her head as she watches the newborn work on widening the new hole on the top. With a squeak, his head disappears into the egg. Gladys taps at the egg and the head pps back out. He looks at the dragoness and tries to move to her, but he ends up toppling over. Gladys snorts in amusement and Frostwing rolls his eyes. He nudges the egg with his snout.

Determined to break free from his egg prison, the hatchling widens the hole enough so that he slowly wiggles out of it. Immediately, everyone but Atraxa notices that the hatchling is bipedal just from the movements. The hatchling has blue scales everywhere on his body save for the underside of his tail and his lower chest, where the color is a light green. Grey spikes run from the topside of his tail to his upper back. Kazara tries to stand, only to collapse and grunt. He looks over at Gladys and extends an arm over to her.

Gladys shifts onto her side and grabs Kazara. She pulls him close and gives his cheek a gentle nuzzle. Frostwing watches the two carefully. Gently, he nudges Mercury with the tip of his tail and nods at him. Mercury shifts close to the pair and looks at Kazara closely. Staring back is a gaze full of childlike purity. Seeing the gaze sends a chill down Mercury's spine. _That gaze,_ He thinks. He closes his eyes as visions of a much younger Ruby flash through his head. Back then, they were pure. Mercury distinctly remembers thinking that there really wasn't anything wrong with the world he grew up in. His small bubble was just him and Ruby, and that was sacred to him. It won't last forever, the thought is sobering to him. He gently runs a hoof down Kazara's wing. Compared to his parents and Mercury himself, Kazara's wings take up a much smaller portion of his body.

_Will he even be able to fly?_ Mercury thinks. _A-A dragon would need flight. It's wrong if he doesn't have flight._ The thoughts were almost too much to bear for him. Atraxa looks at Mercury when he detects that Mercury isn't well. Atraxa hugs Mercury gently.

"I love him all the same," Mercury whispers.

"As you should." Atraxa pats Mercury's back before breaking the hug and stepping back. "Look, I need to go. I want you to spent time with the hatchling, okay? He's more important than I am. At this moment, you three are his world and his life. Farewell, my friend. I will see you eventually." With a bow, smoke billows around him and he lets the shadows take them where he needs to go.

When all traces of Atraxa are gone, Mercury closes his eyes. Saying goodbye to him was always the hardest part, and he knew it was one of the few things that were reciprocated. He wonders where all his good friends are, or if they are even alive. He didn't often think about all that. When he opens his eyes, he sees Kazara nuzzling at his mother's chest. For just a moment, he felt as if everything was alright. It was as if the world finally granted something that was eluding him for years: peace. TIme seems to slow as all his worries fade away. 

Mercury takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. He taps into the power reserves in mind and reserves just a bit of magic. Any shadows in the room are drawn to him and he grimaces as he lets their energies sink into him. It was never a pleasant experience for him. The shadows feel tingly against him, as if most of his body is mostly covered in bugs. The unpleasantness of it nearly forces him out of that state. His eyes flutter open for a split second, catching a glimpse of Frostwing’s wing shifting over him. He manages to shut his eyes a few moments before the shadows take his mind away.

* * *

_A howl and a very loud crack in the Everfree forest breaks the stillness of the cool night air. A dark purple crack appears in the air in the center of a small village and widens to accommodate the width of a rather young pony. Mercury slowly steps out of the portal and collapses when his hooves hit the packed dirt. He is panting heavily. The few ponies that were out and about stop and stare at the newcomer. A pegasus and a unicorn trot up to him and look at him closely. The unicorn’s horn lights up and scans his body for any injuries, ignoring the bag that is strapped to his back. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, the unicorn is forced to step back to give Mercury space. She signals for the pegasus to step back and he does._

_By the time Mercury responds, a small crowd has gathered around him. Mercury groans and sits up. He shakes his head, groaning softly._

_“It is seven months since the new year,” An earth pony near the front of the crowd says. “We are in the 350th year. Who and what are you, outsider?”_

_Mercury flinches at the voice. “My name is Mercury, and I…” His ears flatten. “I’m nobody. I shouldn’t even be here, god dammit.” There’s a bitter edge to his voice that causes the crowd to step back a bit._

_“Step aside, everyone,” A voice at the back says. The crowd splits and a mare trots toward Mercury. She is garbed in a tattered cloak. Her orange eyes lock onto Mercury. “He speaks the truth. If we are to remember our founding principles, we should do so now. Starshield, take him to your house and clean him up. I would like him to speak with me in an hour.”_

_“By you wishes, Elder,” A young pegasus says. He bows toward the mare before turning to Mercury and beckoning him to follow. Mercury shakily stands, tries to take a step, then collapses from the effort. A gentle glow surrounds him and lifts him off of the ground. The unicorn that approached him earlier guides Mercury to the hut Starshield lives in. Mercury hits the wooden floor with a grunt when he drops out of the unicorn’s line of sight._

_“I am going to need you to sit in this chair,” Starshield says. His tail flicks towards a chair sitting by a table in the center of the small living room. The stallion gets a brush off of a nearby wall and walks over to the chair. After a few deep breaths, Mercury stands up. He shakily makes his way over to the chair, sitting down in it and slumping tiredly._

_“O-Ow,” Mercury winces when Starshield starts to comb his mane. He ignores the protesting stallion as he works out all the knots and kinks in Mercury’s mane._

_“Hey look, this is going to take a while,” Starshield says. “There’s a lot of shit in you mane.” Starshield pulls out a twig and tosses it to the side. “How in the hell did you get this dirty?”_

_“Long fucking story, and I don’t want to talk about it yet,” Mercury growls. Gently, Starshield gets back to brushing. Mercury closes his eyes, feeling every movement the brush is making. The pain and discomfort slowly goes away. The minutes pass by without a single thought in Mercury’s head. He doesn’t know where he is, or how he got here. He expects that the conversation with the elder would clear the murkiness in his head. Deep down, he didn’t know why he was so dirty. He didn’t know why his mane was so messy. He could feel that knowledge just beyond his reach, and that no amount of reaching would get him closer. The outsider would just have to be patient._

_Thirty minutes of brushing and gentle mental probing pass by swiftly for the outsider. He snaps out of his mental daze when Starshield steps back and announces that he is done. Mercury slowly sides off of the chair and onto his hooves. “I need that mare’s house. Take me there,” Mercury says gruffly. Starshield hesitates, prompting Mercury to stare at him. “Now.”_

_“R-Right away,” Starshield trots out of the hut and heads to the centermost hut. Along the way, Mercury takes a deep breath and shuts down the anger that bubbled up inside him. Starshield knocks on the door and steps aside. The village elder opens the door and peers at Starshield. Her gaze flicks to Mercury and she nods at him. Mercury trots into the hut before the elder closes the door. Mercury takes a seat by a nearby table, watching as the elder sits across from him._

_“So nice of you to join me,” The mare smiles. “Especially as early as this. I half expected you to draft up answers.”_

_Mercury rolls his eyes. “Yeah, there’s no way I can predict what you are going to ask me.”_

_“We’re going to jump right in, okay?” Seeing an affirming nod, the elder frowns. “Now, what was all that portalling about?”_

_“I have no idea.”_

_“You’re clearly a foreigner. You have that look in your eye and the scent of many different worlds. Surely, there is a way you navigate to them?”_

_“Ah yes, the interdimensional rifts? Yes, that is how I navigate to the other worlds you speak of.”_

_The mare tilts her head. “Explain.”_

_“Certainly. They are… were usually random occurrences in the worlds I went to. I won’t bore you with the details. Let’s just say that they appear and lead to other places, mmkay?” He winces, his heart fluttering a beat, followed by a wave of sadness._

_The mare rubs her chin in thought. “How long does it take for them to show up?”_

_“Average time is three weeks. Why are you so interested in this?”_

_The mare looks out a window and sighs. “I guarantee you that your arrival was felt. By whom? Their intentions? I do not know. You do not simply rip a hole in space and step through it and not attract attention.”_

_“It was not me that opened the rift. Normally, the world around me-”_

_“Normally. What makes this time different?”_

_“I do not know, elder. I...” The formality makes the elder smile a bit despite how serious she is taking this. “I just… remembered… kinda. I was walking through a field, my head felt as if it was being crushed, and I felt… compelled to go somewhere. I don’t know where. My… my mind blanked out and I snapped back to consciousness sweating with a crowd of ponies surrounding me. P-Ponies with marks on their ass. Is this a dream?” He takes a deep breath, shaking away the pangs of uncertainty. He knows he needs to have confidence here._

_“No, this is real,” The elder says. “You really aren’t from around here, are you? Do you have proof of citizenship in this empire?”_

_“Nope. I have nothing of that sort.”_

_“Then you’ll fit right in,” The mare perks up, losing her serious tone slightly. “Are there any valuable services you can provide?”_

_Mercury looks thoughtful for a moment, then nods. “Let me check first, okay?” He closes his eyes and starts to focus on the room around him. He extends his mind to the shadow that the table casts on the ground and probes it. He draws it to him, but growls when he hits a mental barrier. The elder watches as the table shadow moves toward him and wraps around him. The shadow moves back under the table a split second later. Mercury opens his eyes and stares at the ground. His shoulders slump in defeat._

_“N-No… no… no no no,” He mutters. He takes off the bag and shakily goes through it. His movements become more desperate over time, his breathing quickening in panic. “Nono fuck. Fuck fuck. S-she’s gone. She’s gone. Why is she-” Mercury falls silent and his eyes widen. “W-what the… f-fuck.” Mercury lays down and curls up tightly._

_The elder looks at him in concern and steps toward him. She really isn’t sure what to do here, so she only watches as Mercury slowly breaks down. First, he starts to shake. Words that she does not understand come out of his mouth. He buries his face in his forelegs and shakes harder. The elder trots over to him and sits down. Mercury breaks out of his position and hugs the elder very tightly. He nestles his head into her neck and bursts into tears._

_“T-this is all my fault! I-I failed to p-protect her. I… I a-always fail.” He opens his mouth to say something else, but only a whimper manages to escape before devolving back into sobbing._

_The elder rubs at Mercury’s mane gently. The comforting words she whispers reach deaf years. The sorrow and shock is just too much for Mercury. “I know it hurts,” She says, not caring if he hears or not now. “I know. I lose others, and every time it happens, I blame myself. Every… time.” Her ears flatten. She nuzzles at his mane and tightens the hug._

_Slowly, the initial shock and horror of suddenly losing his lifelong partner fades away. The claws of emotion slowly lets his consciousness and senses go, and he finally becomes aware of his surroundings. He feels his face being smothered by something soft. He feels forelegs wrapping around his side. He hears a voice whisper words that he can barely parse. Mercury sniffs and looks up at the earth pony’s chin._

_“T-thank you,” He says softly. He takes a deep breath and rests his head against her chest. “J-just… thank you.” He sniffs. “I-I’m sorry for all this.”_

_“It’s fine,” The elder says with a sigh. “Do you want to vent about it at all?”_

_“N-not particularly. It… it just hurts,” Mercury says with an audible quiver in his voice._

_“Hurts to lose the ones you love,” The elder says. “Even from old age. It’s something you can’t prevent.” Surprisingly, this elicits a chuckle from Mercury._

_“You would be surprised at the things you discover,” Mercury says, turning to look back out the window. “You… would.”_

* * *

Gently, even through the mindscape Mercury is experiencing, he can feel a small dragon body being placed on his back, and a small pair of arms softly wrapping around his neck in an embrace. It slowly lulls him into the peaceful sleep that he has desired for many, many years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter :3


	3. The Key and the Jungle Realm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, this is a shorter chapter than usual. I partially blame college sucking up most the free time, and I also blame the fact that 3000 or so words in, the point of the chapter was already completed. Expect the next one to come... eventually. I dunno when it would be.

The sun’s morning rays gently fall upon the mountains of the Crystal Empire, causing Kazara to stir and opens his eyes. He yawns softly, blinking a few times to focus on his uncle’s cloak. He lays a claw on the tattered fabric, then slowly slides off his uncle’s back. His gaze sweeps around the cave, then over to the cave entrance. He notices the light and takes a step back when he feels slightly overwhelmed by how bright it is. Instinctively, he starts to run over to his dad, only making it around halfway before a paw strikes a rock. The hatchling hits the ground, starting to cry when he realizes that he can’t get to safety.

Slowly, the sounds of a hatchling in distress lifts Frostwing from his slumber. He lifts his head with an unhappy purr to look at Kazara. Frostwing shifts closer to Kazara and scoots the hatchling closer to him using his tail. Kazara latches onto his dad’s side, immediately burying his face into it and calming down. Kaz sniffles and looks up at his father, all his worries melting away. His watery gaze fades into a happier one when he breaks free from his dad. Knowing that he is being watched, Kaz carefully makes his way deeper into the cave.

The air around Kaz chills the further he goes down into the cave. His slowly adjusting vision picks out flecks of ice embedded on the smoothed out cave wall. He slowly walks over to the wall and places a claw on it. He yanks his claw away from the wall and stumbles back when a sharp feeling of coldness runs through his paw. He tears up when the shock turns to fear, so he immediately runs for the safest place he knows. Finding his way back was easy, yet getting there was rough. He stumbles multiple times on things that would not faze his family, even falling if it caught him off guard, which it often did. Seeing the light at the entrance of the cave only spurred him to get to safety harder.

Kazara hugs at one of Frostwing’s forepaws and buries his face in it. Frostwing gently wraps his second forepaw around Kaz and brings him close to his snout. The quivering hatchling latches onto the snout and nuzzles it softly. Frostwing snorts, giving Kaz’s chin a lick. He speaks with the rumble of an aged male dragon.

“There there. What happened, my child? Did the cave hurt you? Did the monsters get you?” He clears his throat, turns his head slightly, then coughs. Kazara blinks, his father’s words completely going over his head. Frostwing merely chuckles after giving Kazara’s forehead a lick. “Don’t worry, you’ll grow up fast.” He sets the hatchling down and looks back towards Gladys. He lances back towards Kaz when he notices that the feeling of a hatchling hugging him doesn’t go away. The dragon has his face buried in his paw. Frostwing’s gaze softens, scooping the dragon back up and holding him close. He closes his eyes and nuzzles at Kazara’s cheek.

Frostwing’s gentle purring elicits a soft groan from Mercury. He shifts onto his side and opens his eyes. “I hear a happy male,” He says groggily. “That’s good, I guess.” Mercury sighs softly and rolls to a stand. He stretches his legs out, groaning when the bones crack. HIs mind turns to his mental todo list, and he sighs at the first item or so on it. He wasn’t planning to go anywhere until his god came and ruined it for him.

_Perhaps I’ll see the princess again,_ He thinks. _Provided she isn’t away from her throne._ His tail flicks in amusement. Mercury puts on his bag, nodding at Frostwing. “Keep him safe for me, okay?” He asks. The stallion turns around, and just before he can take a step, he hears the light sound of footsteps. Kaz gently hugs his foreleg and leans into it. Mercury lifts the leg the dragon is holding, only to see that he is still holding onto it.

“Uh,” Mercury says. He levitates Kaz off of his leg and sets him next to his father, only to see the hatchling come right back. Mercury moves to take a step, then shakes his head. _Okay fuck… now what?_ He sits on the ground, his mind mulling over a number of possibilities. He opens his bag and digs through it, soon dragging out a piece of parchment, a sealed ink bottle, and a black feathered quill. With a sigh, he dips the quill into the ink and starts to write.

_Dear Princess Melody,_

_Wherever you may be, I hope this message gets to you. I am merely inquiring about my status of citizenship in the empire. If I am to stay for any long length of time, I need to be guaranteed protection from anypony that would hurt Kazara. Write your response on the back, please._

_Mercury._

With a whisper, the parchment disappears, it’s destination the Crystal Empire castle. The princess is pacing by her bed when the letter pops into existence. She stops, her gaze falling on it. The hoofwriting is neat and she recognizes it almost instantly from yesterday. Seeing the directive, she turns over the parchment and writes a message confirming his citizenship. The message Mercury sent her quickly fades away. Melody skims her message for accuracy, takes a step back, and watches it disappear. Half expecting company, she trots out of the room and takes a left. As it often does, her gaze falls on paintings hanging on the walls as she passes by them. She has the images of her extended family, the kingdom both new and old, and the snow covered mountains in her head, but she still finds herself eyeing the paintings.

_I like this place,_ she thinks. That thought was not uncommon for her either. _It’s… nice._ Her tail flicks as she passes by a number of empty side rooms. The silence was occasionally haunting to her. She didn’t want to speak and hear her voice echoing off the walls as it did in the throne room. Melody wanted to hear lively discussion in the halls. _It’s nice except for the silence,_ her mind continues. _I need to fix that._ Melody sighs softly as she trots through the doorway to the throne room, then sits on the throne. Her gaze falls on the large set of double doors at the end of the hallway as she settles back to wait on visitors.

Back at the cave, Mercury skims over Melody’s response. He looks at Kaz and levitates him onto his back. “Now hold on, dear Lightfoot,” He says. “Hold onto your dear life… dearest _ka_.” He trots into the cold wind and blowing snow, gritting his teeth as sharp dragon claws dig into his back.

_Good… good, my little light. You listen,_ The thought warms him up a bit inside, and a small feeling of pride seeps into the warmth. “I love you, you know?” The hatchling does not respond. Kazara emits a soft growl when snow blows into his face. Mercury halts and glances back. _Will… will he be okay?_ He closes his eyes and sighs shakily. A shadowed rope materializes around his body and ties Kazara down onto his back. The dragon squirms and cries out in protest as he feels pressure between his back spikes. Mercury sighs gently, the rope fading away.

“Bad idea. I apologize,” Mercury says. “I have to… believe. It will get better.” He continues trotting down the mountain, all while keeping aware of the weight on his back. Kaz buries his face in Mercury’s cloak, the rhythmic movements quieting him down and relaxing him. Soon, the wind does not bother him.

Mercury emerges from the storm after what feels like an eternity. He shakes the snow off of his head, then glances back to check on Kazara. To his surprise, the hatchling is sitting down. He’s looking straight at the kingdom, his mouth slightly agape. Kaz scampers onto Mercury’s head, laying down on it and looking ahead. To him, the city looks massive, and there’s an air of mysteriousness to it.. 

“This is the Crystal Empire, dear Lightfoot,” He says. “Our home empire.” Kaz’s gaze follows his hoof when he points it to the castle. Kaz’s eyes widen as he takes in the grand structure. His gaze falls on the light reflecting from the purple crystal that is embedded in the two main towers. Desire wells up within him, so he can’t help but hop off of Mercury. Shadows pool around the space below Kaz as he falls, shooting up to intercept him. When Kaz gently touches the ground, he starts to walk toward the city. Mercury scoops him up before he could get too far, then levitates him back onto Merc’s back. “Stay,” He says. Kaz stays. Mercury then resumes trotting.

The dragon stays surprisingly still when he nears the city. Upon entering it, ponies take notice of the dragon on his back. Mercury ignores the stares. He knows that some gazes are frightful, some gazes are in awe, and still some are in anger. He hears the whispers as clear as day, and his mind whirls with them. _A dragon here? A baby dragon? Who are they? Is that the father? Will he kill this empire?_ Mercury shuts off his mind when the more hateful whispers come to him. Death threats usually did not bother him, but all of this is different. He has a dragon that filled the hole in his heart. Any hate towards Kazara will be hate towards him. He glares at the ponies who whispered hateful things.

_Figures… they’re all from Celestia’s kingdom,_ He thinks bitterly. The ponies meet his gaze and step toward him. Mercury stops in his tracks. “Oh I’m sorry, I thought dragons were free in the Crystal Empire. You want all of his kind to die? Well guess what? What if I want the same for your kind?” He narrows his eyes, stepping towards the largest of his detractors. “You kill this child and you won’t just incur my wrath… now _fuck off_.” Mercury hisses, telepathically drawing a knife from a scabbard on his hind leg. He moves to brandish it, but the stallion steps back. He turns and gallops away. The other detractors fall into silence. Part of Mercury’s words instilled a sense of fear into them. Mercury whirls to face them, venom in his gaze. The ponies flinch, galloping away.

“Does anyone _else_ have issues with this child?” He calls out. “Anyone at all? Huh?” He slowly looks around at the crowd that has slowly gathered. “No? None?” He puts away the hidden dagger. “Thank god.” Mercury shakes his head softly, then resumes trotting.

When they neared the main commercial district, the smell of food made Kaz perk up He gently scratches at Mercury’s cloak, tearing through the fabric and indicating a food shop. Mercury grimaces, then sniffs the air. Something sweet permeates the air, coming from a local bakery. It appears quite busy with ponies frequently coming in and out carrying a variety of baked goods. Mercury eyes one crystal pony that emerges with a loaf of fresh bread. He licks his lips, then enters the shop.

A green coated shopkeep stands behind a counter with a number of breads, rolls, bagels, pastries, and cupcakes behind him and to either side. Mercury stands away from the doorway, browsing the selection. He then heads to the back of the line. As before, the crystal ponies were more impressed with the dragon on his back than the normal ponies were. The excitement was more subdued but still sensed in the shop. The crystal pony Mercury stops behind glances back at him.

“Is that a dragon?” She asks.

“Yes, yes he is,” Mercury sighs. “Shouldn’t that be obvious?” His abrasive tone causes her to frown a bit.

“Apologies,” The mare says. “How’d you come across it… him?”

“I’m his uncle.”

The mare’s eyes widen. “O-oh wow! How is being an uncle to a baby dragon?”

Mercury chuckles. “Oh it’s… nice. He’s a cutie, and I won’t let anyone harm him. He’s a day old.”

The mare nods, turning her gaze back to the line. She closes the gap in the line that was made from concentrating on their discussions. Kaz sniffs the air, staring at the treats. His interest and need for them spikes when Mercury approaches the counter.

“What would you have?” The baker asks with a smile.

“I would like a loaf of your bread, and I think this little guy wants a…” Kazara points at a pastry. “A pastry, please? Just one.” He places twelve bits on the counter. The baker grabs the loaf and the pastry, places it on the counter, then nods and takes the bits.

“Thank you, and have a wonderful day,” The shopkeep says. Mercury takes everything and trots out, taking a right and heading for the castle. He levitates the pastry to Kaz. The hatchling sniffs it, gives it a gentle lick, then eats it all in one bite. The hatchling then lays down and curls up. He bites at the tip of his tail gently. Shadows coat the bread, then start to break it down. Slowly, the energies that make up the bread sink into the stallion. A warmth fills his body, and he feels some lost energy come back to him.

_No time to eat. Not here, not now,_ He thinks. Like before, the stallion stops at the gates and he is let in without much fuss. The guards eye the hatchling warily. Mercury nods in thanks and heads right for the throne room. Upon opening the set of double doors, Melody snaps out of her thoughts and trots down to greet him.

“Mercury,” She nods.

“Princess,” Mercury gently bows, only for her to sigh, then gasp and take a step back.

“A d-dr-” She stammers. “H-here? Mercury, what are you _doing_?”

“He wasn’t going to let me go without him,” Mercury shrugs. “Plus, I just assumed that you wanted to see the hatchling.” “B-but the crystal-”

“They’re fine with him. They really are cool with him being here. Celestia’s Empire, however…” He shakes his head. “Not good.” Melody visibly relaxes. “If they would have attacked, I would have shown no mercy, Princess.”

“I get it,” Melody says. “You’re protective of him. May I get close to him?”

Mercury nods and lays down, fully bringing Kazara into her sights. She trots to his back and sits down. Her gaze softens at the sight of the sleepy lizard. She extends a hoof out and gently touches his side. He shifts to hug at her forehoof.

“A-aw,” She says. She pulls her hoof away.

Mercury nods, chuckling softly. _Yeah, he is a good one,_ He thinks.

“So, what are you here for?” Melody looks at him and smiles. Mercury fishes out the key he was given and shows Melody.

“I was given this by my god. Long story. Anyway, he said that I should give it to you and you’ll know what to do with it.”

Melody tilts her head, tilting the key to either side and inspecting it closely. The gems embedded within the silver metal, and the teeth of the key itself, remind her of the stash of keys she already has. She rubs her chin and nods. The key certainly belonged to the castle, that much she knew. The width of the key also tells her that it looks like it can fit in a door somewhere.

“What am I supposed to do with this besides wait?” She asks. Melody shuts her eyes, thinking harder. “Other than… wait a minute... what if this doesn’t go to a door?”

Mercury nods, chuckling. “Bingo. For more specifics, you should wait until Kaz grows older. A lot older. Save the key until then. When your successor comes to age and takes the throne, you should give the key to them, and they should do it to their successor, and so on.”

“What you’re asking me to do is odd,” Melody sighs. “What would I have expected though? A dragon family in my empire is already an oddity, and you seem like an oddity yourself. I already know you mean no harm, but that still leaves open all sorts of questions. Questions upon questions, even. Yet, I do not wish to… to ask them.” Her ears flatten. “I fear the answers.”

“Understandable,” Mercury says. “There are things that I do not wish to disclose, and I do admit that I tire of people questioning me. There wouldn’t be much that I will answer.”

“Pointless to try? Fair enough. The mysterious will remain mysterious,” She flashes Mercury a smile. “What I like. Anyway, I shall put away the key. Would you like anything to drink or eat?”

Mercury hesitates, tilting his head a bit. _Will it be rude if I refused? I don’t want to lie either._ He thinks. He sighs gently, shaking his head. “I had a little something on the way. Stopped by the baker’s place to get baked goods.”

“Fair enough!” Melody smiles. “I shall see you whenever?” She hugs Mercury gently, giving his cheek a nuzzle before leaving the room.

“H-heh,” Mercury’s tail flicks at the nuzzle. He expected the hug, but the nuzzle threw him for a loop. That form of affection was a rarity for him. He checks for Kaz on his back, then heads out of the castle.

Melody makes her way toward her room, levitating the key in front of her. She hums softly, her gaze passing over everything she looked at on the way to the throne room as usual. Upon entering her room, she stores the key in a safe and locks it with a magical seal. She feels a link being established between the seal, herself, and her filly in a nearby nursery room. After a moment, she heads down the hall a few doors and trots into the nursery.

Upon stepping in, the nursery’s painted walls impart a sense of calmness into Melody. She always liked the decision of painting the Equestrian sky on the walls. Throughout the room are a number of cribs, and the only occupied one has a pink coated filly, giggling and staring at the sky. Melody smiles softly and trots over to the crib. She scoops up the filly into her arms and nuzzles her.

“Oh Cadence,” She giggles, kissing her forehead. “You’re gonna grow up and make me proud.” She relaxes further, the presence of her kid putting her mind at ease. Somehow, she knew that everything was going to be alright.

* * *

The sound of gentle rain patters on the roof of a mansion bordering on an expansive forest and an equally expansive jungle, where the sounds of all sorts of creatures fill the air. Squirrels and other small critters are scampering around the moss-caked roof. Hanging off the roof are a number of thick vines that extend all the way down the side of the house to the ground. Some parts of the vine are unnaturally thick, being reinforced over the years from animals scampering up and down it. Peppered along the sides of the house are small holes with nests inside of them.

Looking outside an open window on the second floor is Golden, but with a horn perching neatly on his forehead. Surrounding him is a pile of books, scrolls, and quills. The desk in front of him has parchment strewn everywhere without any sense of order. A few larger stacks of parchment take up space at the back of the table. Scrawled on the parchment are a number of notes and lists, along with dates on the top of the parchment. A number of candles near the parchment stacks burn brightly, giving the room a flowery scent. A humid breeze gently blows through, disturbing the flames and the parchment a little. 

Golden levitates a painted light blue rock over and places it onto the most disturbed stack. He pushes away from the table and stands. The stallion gently licks at one of his forehooves, using it to smooth down his mane. He levitates the largest stack toward him, then trots toward a table in an adjacent corner. Golden sets the stack down on the table, sitting down in a chair and taking out leather, strands of vine, and a needle. Slowly, Golden begins to work on binding the pieces of parchment together.

The sound of a creaking door nearby snaps him out of his trance. He doesn’t need to look back, as he recognizes the hoofsteps as Solacia’s. Her hoof gently pets at his mane and she smiles gently.

“Hey there, Sol,” Golden says softly. He turns and smiles at her. The god of space sits down next to Golden, looking at the progress he has made. He looks like he is around halfway done with sewing the pages together.

“Thank you for this,” Solacia says. “I know it isn’t… easy to figure out who is busy when, then asking them for information. Not to mention the… horn.”

Golden grimaces, reflecting on the emotions he felt as he was walking the Canterlot streets. He lasted around ten seconds before he had to head to a more private area before breaking down entirely. He was not expecting all the anger coming from the locals. The god didn’t even know what was causing it. Since then, he didn’t step foot in the city, electing for the smaller towns instead. 

Normally, it wouldn’t have been this bad for him. Any other day, he wouldn’t have experienced the flood of emotions upon reaching the centers of cities. That day wasn’t normal, however. It was the day he finally got his horn. He figured the gods trusted him enough to give him the biological equivalent of an amplifier for magic. What he wasn’t prepared for was the onslaught of foreign memories.

Golden shivers, then shakes his head. He focuses back on threading the needle through the pieces of parchment. He’s silent throughout this process, causing Solacia to worry a bit.

“Hey, I’m sorry,” She says softly. “I didn’t mean to… bring it up.”

“It’s okay,” Golden says. “Don’t… worry about it.” He takes a deep breath, calming himself before he could mess up the stitching. He finishes up with the binding at a quicker than usual rate, then binds the leather to the front and back pages before sliding it over to Solacia. “Find a bookshelf to put this on. I’m going to go and at least try to relax.” He stands, hugs the goddess, then trots out of the room. Heading outside is a mere matter of heading down the adjacent staircase, then out the door on the ground floor.

The warm air hits him like a truck as soon as he steps out. He blinks, then shakes his head and trots out from under the overhang. The omnipresent drizzle takes the oppressive heat away a little bit. He trots down a well-maintained path, eyeing at the squirrels perching on nearby tree branches. Seeing them puts his mind at ease a little bit. The path soon gives way to a clearing with thick vegetation. He heads to the center and sits in some already flattened plants. There, he closes his eyes and hones in the sounds of the forest. The chittering and chirping of the realms smaller creatures give way to the rustling of bushes deeper in the forest, but not out of earshot. Guesses go through his mind, but he discards them as he feels they are encroaching on the sanctity of this area.

With deeper breaths, he focuses further into the forest. The growls and the purrs from the more exotic wildlife make him feel more at peace. _I’m not alone here,_ He thinks. _I have the tigers, the rabbits, and the manticores to keep me at peace._ He thinks calmly. He opens his eyes, laying down and closing his eyes once more. Absent was the fear of being easy prey, the fear of being nipped by bugs, and the worry that he might not wake up in a few hours. He knew the predators here were kinder than Equestrian ones, and that thought filled his mind with peace. Clinging onto that thought, he drifts off to sleep, not even worrying about what the next day would bring.


	4. The Second Dimensional Shift

The day was as normal as every other day in Ponyville. Townsfolk have taken advantage of the nice weather in order to get their chores done. Heading through the town square is a stallion plated in gold armor. Ponies near him give him a wide berth, but few acknowledge him. Some look at him in disdain, whereas others stare in fascination.

The stallion's gaze turns to the Everfree as it comes into view. The shadows cast upon the houses bordering it do not spook him, much unlike a majority of the Ponyville citizens. He ducks into a small forest trail and begins trotting down it, heading for the more populated areas of the forest. The dirt below his hooves is dry and cold. He cannot help but feel unnerved at the sudden change of temperature and sound around him. Long gone was the heat of the sun and the pleasant chatter of the Ponyville denizens. Cold and silence was his friend now.

The forest trail winds through a number of small clearings then travels down a small valley. At the bottom of the valley is the main river that cuts through the Everfree. A worn down bridge stands between him and the rest of the trail. With a deep sigh, he begins crossing it. On any normal day, he would silently plea for Celestia to save him should things go wrong, but this did not feel like a normal day to him. The air around him is charged with an energy that spooks him and makes the hairs of his coat stand on one end.

Halfway across the bridge, a sense of great danger overcomes him. He leans against the bridge railing, breathing heavily. His gaze flicks to the shadows in the brush. The shadows looked real to him. He shakes off the paranoia that could root him in place, then continues to carefully step across the bridge. Creaking wood exacerbates his fear, forcing him to move even faster. Upon touching the dirt, he nearly collapses into it in relief. He catches his breath, shakes his head, then continues trotting.

A few moments later, his ears flick as a soft rustling sound is heard around a bend. Cautiously, he creeps forward, sticking his head out around the bend to get a better look at what caused it. He sees nothing but dirt, rocks, trees, and plants. The stallion blinks, stepping back when he hears it again. His gaze flicks down to the area in front of him and gasps somewhat loudly.

Staring back up at him is a pair of light blue eyes belonging to a very familiar looking, but very young pony. The stallion tilts his head, trying to place the appearance of the pony.

"Blue eyes, brown coat, and a black and red mane. Pegasus," He mutters. "Hey wait a... minute? D-Desert?" He would have recognized him anywhere. He recalled spotting him as he was patrolling Canterlot a few days ago. A fair amount of questions now enter his mind. The stallion clearly did not know why Desert was here, laying in the dirt and looking a lot younger.

"H-how?" He asks. The light blue eyes staring back give him no suitable answer. Not wanting to leave him here, he levitates the foal onto his back. With a worried sigh, he slowly makes his way back toward Ponyville.

"W-why? H-how?  _What?_ " He says softly and shakily, after crossing the bridge. The foal contently looks around at the scenery, seemingly fascinated by it, whereas the royal guard remains on edge. He focuses on getting out as fast as possible.

_G-god damn, really?_  He thinks.  _R-really? Just what I... needed. T-Tia is going to flip when she notices I'm back early. I don't want that._

His thoughts are cut short when the trail terminates at the town. He steps out into the warm sun and wastes no time in heading toward the Ponyville train station. He completely ignores the stares and whispers of surprised citizens. It would only get worse from here on out, he reckoned.

Entering the station's main building is an easy task for him. He heads up to the ticket counter and clears his throat. "Y-you know me. One to Canterlot for the kid on my back." He nods his head to the foal. The mare behind the counter takes a look at the pegasus on his back. She prints out a ticket for the stallion and gives it to him.

"Foals ride free. Next stop is in ten," she says. The guard glances down at his ticket, then nods and heads on over to the back corner of the main building. He lays down, casting his gaze to a clock on the wall.

The foal on his back remains remarkably quiet. The guard's tail flicks.  _What discipline he has. Surprising, as he's a foal._

The foal catches the eyes of a few mares wandering outside the station. "Hey, that's-" One of the mares look over at a hoof on her shoulder. She then looks at the equine that touched her.

"Don't worry about it," The mare that touched her says. "The guy looks like he has it covered." She trots away, her black tail swishing in the wind. With a sigh, the other mare follows her.

With a frown, the guard turns his gaze away from the pair. He shakes his head.  _Damn you, Tia. Always watch my peripheries, she said. Even if it's useless, she said. I don't have eyes on the back of my head._ He shakes his head again, then closes his eyes. He tenses up with every shift the colt makes on his back.

Boarding the train moments later is no issue to the guard. He heads through the cars, reaching the final passenger car with Desert in his arms and sitting down in an empty compartment. He sets the colt down in the chair across from him and glances toward the windows on either side. The scenery out of them is always the same to him. On one end, it shows off the back half of Ponyville. If he was to lean back, the guard would see the central square poke around the building's edge. The other side is boring grasslands with occasional trees scattered here and there in a Discordian fashion.

Before the constant travel between Canterlot and Ponyville, the sights were genuinely interesting to him. Canterlot was once the most beautiful city in all of Equestria. A lot of the magic was lost when he saw it for the tenth time. With a sigh, the guard shuts his eyes. As if on cue, the train jolts and starts moving down the tracks.

_I was the only one?_  He opens an eye and gazes into the empty train station as it passes by. He did not recall anyone getting on in front or behind him, nor did he see anyone else in the station. Unease creeps back into his mind and body as if he was back in the Everfree.

"Calm down..." He says softly. The guard swallows, leaning back in his seat. "It's not an omen. If it was, others would sense things. It's just me... it's just me." He closes the open eye, choosing to ignore the scenery the train passes by.

The train weaves around gentle rolling hills before straightening out. Stretched directly ahead of the train is a large mountain. Several train-sized tunnels cut through the base of it. Waterfalls stream down the mountainsides, collecting into small lakes which then feed into a river the tracks pass over.

With a slight upward shift, the guard knows they pass over the river. The pair of wooden bridges has served as the point of crossing for both ponies and trains alike. History books pen the construction at the year 850, where settlers from Ponyville petitioned Celestia to create the bridge. It sits at 60 feet long and 45 feet wide. Engraved into the wood at either end is an emblem related to the crosser's destination. On Canterlot's side, a small town by a forest takes up the whole width of the pedestrian side. Across the bridge is a carving of the sun and moon, with the seal of the princesses between them. Very few notice the detail behind the carvings as the train speeds over it.

Upon returning to solid ground, the train begins to slow. Taking this as an indication of the close proximity of his destination, he scoops up Desert into his arms and looks down at him. The colt has long since fallen asleep, despite the ride only taking around thirty minutes. Gently, he sets the colt down on his lap.

Their surroundings quickly fall into darkness when the train moves into the mountain. Using a magically augmented mechanism within the tracks, the train begins its short climb up through the mountain. Occasional torches and holes drilled through the wall light up the way at flatter sections.

Soon, the constricting tunnel walls fall away to a large room in which one of the Canterlot stations lie. The train stops near a white sign that helpfully states it is the lower of the two stations. Below the black lettering is a map of the capitol itself, and a map of the tunnel system that snakes toward the surface. A red arrow helpfully points at the sign's current location.

Six large tunnels cut into the rock. Two sit on either side of the station. Hundreds of sets of hoofprints are scattered throughout both of the tunnels. Stone making up the tunnel walls are cracked and chipped in certain spots. Carvings along the walls are easily spotted by the guard. Three tunnels are each guarded by a pair of royal guards. The final tunnel, unseen from his location, is blocked off entirely.

Taking up a large chunk of the room is the two-story train station. Inside the purple and gold walls is a large waiting room similar to the one in Ponyville. Around forty ponies mill around the waiting room. They help themselves to water and snacks laid out on a central table. Lining the walls are red chairs facing the glass and the table. Three mares sit behind the ticket counter. Each hand out tickets with a chilling amount of efficiency. Tinted glass in the upper floor prevents anyone outside the building from looking in. A visible staircase on the lower level is staffed by an exhausted-looking armorless guard. Only a pin on his chest suggests that he is a member of the Royal Guard.

Suspended from the cavern ceiling are chandeliers. First-time travelers scattered around the room glance at miniature figures of the moon and sun eternally circling around each other. Not too far from the lights is a mural painted on the wall. Shops of all kinds line a dirt street. Lamps spaced evenly on either side cast a warm glow on the road ahead. At the end of the road are lightly guarded golden gates. Between the bars, one can make out giant front doors and two large windows. Anything in the windows is drowned out by yellow light. Ponies in foreign clothing meander the streets carrying baskets of fresh goods. The elite members of the city stand out through their elaborate dresses. One of these members, a purple-coated unicorn, exits a seamstress' shop with a black dress draped over her back. Everyone around seems to be ignoring her.

Tearing his gaze away from the surroundings, the guard stands and places Desert on his back. He steps onto the cold stone and dirt, then turns his gaze to the mural wall. With a huff of irritation, the guard trots toward the small tunnel etched into the wall. The guards' stances slacken a bit as their gaze falls on him.

"Cloud," One of the guards grunt. The guard pokes at Cloud's nose and cheek. He stares into the stallion's eyes, searching for something that is not there. Satisfied, he steps aside. The second guard does so as well.

Cloud trots past the guards. Their gazes drift to the napping colt. One of the guards opens his mouth to say something, but the second guard stops him. Ten feet into the tunnel, the sounds of his hoofsteps echo back into his ears. He takes a deep breath, fixing his gaze forward.

Down in the tunnels, Cloud's sense of time is skewed. For what feels like half an hour, the guard anxiously makes his way higher and higher up the mountain. The guard's gaze turns to the walls, hoping for a sign or a map that would show him how far he is. There is none. Stopping to listen for ponies ahead of him yields nothing. The guard shakes his head and presses on, keeping the light at the end of the tunnel in his mind.

_I could teleport but..._  He glances back at the foal with a defeated sigh.  _Fuck. I'm not risking his safety and comfort._  He increases the pace to a light canter. Beyond the bend, white light floods into the cave.

Cloud squints in the sunlight as soon as he steps into it. He immediately surveys his surroundings. The area around him is fenced in on all sides by a white wall. To his right is the western castle tower, the western garden, and the path that leads into the western castle wing. In the center of the area is a fairly large white building. Displayed on the front doors is the Equestrian seal, with lettering below it:

_Guard Barracks: Main Building_

Cloud trots toward the building in question and enters it. Inside is a large common room, a mess hall, a doorway leading to the kitchens, and several emergency exits. Guards lounging on chairs and couches glance over at him. One stands and trots over to him.

"Back so soon, Cloud?" He asks.

"Yes, sir. I ran into a little issue," Cloud nods to Desert. His superior steps back, his gaze locked onto the foal.

"Understandable, then." He looks to his left, then to his right, then steps closer to Cloud. "Better be careful. Head to the room and keep him there."

Cloud nods, bows, then quickly heads out of the building and canters toward a building near the back wall. He opens the door to it, then trots down the main hallway. He stops in front of a door with his name nailed onto it. Cloud opens the door, sets Desert on a nearby chair, then collapses into the bed in the back corner. The walls of the room are white and bare. A desk near the bed is kept meticulously clean. A top drawer is open, showing complete patrol forms. Taking up the center of the desk is a blank copy of the form. Sitting behind it is a quill and some ink.

The stallion stares up at the ceiling, hoping it has answers he does not have. His gaze flicks over the bumps as he attempts to discern patterns in its patternless structure. Cloud grumbles, rolling onto his belly, then sliding off the bed and standing. He takes his helmet off and hangs it on a hook nailed onto the wall. With a huff, he jots down his name, position, and patrol information on the form only to pause at the patrol incidences field.

_Do I? What even is the protocol behind this?_  He thinks. He shifts in his chair. Thoughtlessly, he pens "found foal in the Everfree. Took him to barracks. Nothing else of note" into the field, tears off the pink sheet behind it, then stuffs the original one into the drawer it belongs in.  _Fuck it._

Moments later, he finds himself in his bed. Locking the door with a simple thought, Cloud shifts onto his side and gives himself up to his thoughts and worries.

* * *

The sounds of gentle knocking stir Golden out of his long slumber.  _Why did I decide to do this again?_  He thinks, opening an eye. A picture of Solacia laying on a cliff edge looking out toward the sun fills his gaze. He groans, then gets out of bed. With a yawn, the stallion opens the door.

"Yes?" He asks. Meeting his gaze is Riloxia, a blue coated and black-maned stallion with a neutral gaze.

"It happened," Riloxia says bluntly. Golden follows him down a hallway to a room in the center of Solacia's complex. They trot into an elevator in the back corner. When the door shuts, Riloxia looks at Golden.

"I know how much he meant to you," The god sighs. A LED display toward the top corner shows the elevator's coordinates in the complex. With a press of a few buttons, the elevator begins a delayed jump process to the topmost floor. A timer replaces the information in the display. Riloxia shakes his head as he picks up on Golden's subtle movements. A flick of the tail coupled with trace amounts of confusion in his eyes gives it all away to Riloxia.

"Eight minutes. You're confused. We didn't explain what exactly went on, didn't we? You know the 'what?' and not the 'why?'. You want to know the why? That is fine." Riloxia says. His attempt at sounding neutral and informative falls flat to Golden's ears. They pin back in apprehension.

"Here in this business of unfucking intangible things, we call this a dimensional shift. It is a rudimentary and rare way of correcting erroneous timelines most of the time. What was wrong with it you are poised to ask? War. War between two sides that never saw eye to eye in anything. Conflict there that would make this world very peaceful. Pacifist, even. One mistake by one very important pony set this off."

"Desert?"

"No. No no no," Riloxia laughs. "Hell no. Celestia's advisor. They sparked the keg that lit the fire. War wasn't even  _why_  the timeline had to be corrected. It was the things inside the forest. Things ferals hide away. Magical weapons that could lay ruin to sunbutt's plans. I would wager that somewhere deep within, ponies were tired of the fighting. A compromise would have wiped them out as well. What could one do, besides burn it all down. Rid the world of all conflict by making it disappear."

Golden pauses. "A bomb?"

"Extremely rudimentary. Built up over hundreds of years from tribals here and there. The clock was ticking. Someone somewhere had to step in. Arcanus. That unicorn bailed Desert out before he could perish in the world fire. Equus A-184 is dead. Their ashes are scattered around the stars now."

"Isn't that a bit... unrealistic? Overblown? The am-" Riloxia's hoof clamps over Golden's mouth. A glare in the time god's eyes shuts him up.

"For our standards, yes. Theirs? No. The world was rife with unrestrained magic from the conflicts. Look, that's all you need to know. He is  _safer_  here. Our superiors wanted this to be a future. They made it such." A jolt forces Golden to step back. Suddenly, they were where they wanted to be. A light  _ding_  fills the air just before bright light from rooms beyond flood the room.

Beyond the elevator doors is a hallway leading to a large circular room. Covering the walls are television screens of various Equestrian towns and cities. Taking up the center of the room is a holographic display of the planet.

Solacia sits behind the globe. Her eyes are glued to one of the screens showing Desert on the back of a royal guard she did not know of. The top corner of the screen displays their coordinates and the name of the location they are in. Golden flies through the holographic display and lands to Solacia's right. Like her, his gaze locks into the single display.

The two watch as the guard gets the train ticket. The view zooms in on the ticket details. Solacia switches adjacent screens to a generic view of Canterlot's main street. The view pans around to show an alternative train station identical to the one in the lower level. Ponies with brushes, brooms, and buckets disappear into and reemerge from the train. Inside the station, the lights are off and it appears to be empty aside from a few plainclothes security personnel wandering around.

Golden's interest is piqued at the sight of the train and train station. "Interesting," He says softly. "I've never... seen train maintenance before."

"We aren't here for that, Goldie," Solacia says sharply.

Golden's ears flatten slightly. He looks at the ground as Solacia's guilt gets to him.

Solacia's eyes widen when she realizes her mistake. She drapes a wing over him and pulls him into a hug. The mare shuts her eyes as she tightens the hug. Her hooves softly rub at his mane.

"I... I-I get it, Sol," Golden says. "You're not in a good state of mind. H-how could we be?"

"We should have warned you about this... dimensional shift," Sol sighs. "But we didn't. I'll take responsibility."

Golden's softening gaze drifts onto her. "Why, Sol?"

Solacia shifts a bit against the base of the projector. "We've received orders of non-interference. We-"

"No, I get it now," His tone fights back anger. The stallion swallows it away and nods. Some secrets, he figures, are better worth not telling. Golden knows the exact course of action he would take if he was told he shouldn't interfere. He would disobey the orders. Once he realizes this, he nods and tightens the hug. Golden buries his nose into Sol's soft upper belly fur. He gives it a nuzzle.

"Hey, it's not like he won't be back." She softly pets at his mane. "He's not gone forever."

"That... that him is," Golden says softly. "What if he... won't take too kindly to me when we meet next?"

Riloxia gazes at them. "This is my... realm of expertise, Sol. Want the brutally honest answer, Golden?" He sits against a screen, stretching out his hind legs. "The fact is that we won't know. If he doesn't take kindly to you, then to him, you will just exist. You will be a presence in his life. You may be hated by him, depending on how he perceives you. The worse it is, the more likely he is to despise your presence. You aren't satisfied by my answer, I know." Riloxia stares at Golden. The stallion's shoulders slump in dissatisfaction mere seconds later. He then whirls his gaze over to meet Riloxia's.

"H-hey! You knew!" Golden says. "N-not fair!"

"You are a predictable stallion. What do you want me to say? Want an answer bathed in certainty? Want me to use my third eye and tell you what facts you will face in your future? You know as well as I do that I can't. The future is just  _too fucking complicated_  for something of that scale. I won't waste my energy for poking through uncountable futures." Riloxia says coldly. Golden slumps a bit more, the words cutting straight through him. He buries his face harder in Solacia's chest.

"Take... take me from here, Sol. I have nothing more I want to see." Golden says shakily. Solacia complies, shooting Riloxia a very cold gaze. The time god is fine with this, as he is with all things.

* * *

Moisture in the humid air glistens in Golden's fur. Raikia's soft hooves gently brush against his lower neck, back, and shoulders, imparting him with extremely relaxing feelings. His body has long since gone limp, succumbing to sensory overloads. A moist heated towel is draped on his lower back and hind legs. Naturally, this feeds further into his relaxed state. Golden winces slightly as Raikia's hooves pass over a tense shoulder muscle. She tuts, pressing down on it and giving it a harder rub.

 Golden shivers slightly and lets out a soft groan. "Y-your hooves are... m-magical," He says softly.

The stallion was lucky to have caught Raikia off guard. To assuage the visible negativity in his eyes, ears, and tail, she took him into the floating island she calls her home. Near the core, she had a room constructed specifically for relaxation. Naturally heated and dampened air pours from cracks in the stone leading to the comforting feel of the room. Dim lighting around the room brings down the mood further. Raikia picks up a towel hanging above the vents and brings it over to him.

"Spread 'em," she says. Golden spreads out his wings, biting his lip and shuddering as the towel is draped over it. "F-fuck, I haven't felt this good in a while," He says.

Rai bends over and giggles into his ear. "Yes... that's good." She gives his eartip a lick, then focuses back on massaging him. As she works her way down his back, she hits more muscles that are not relaxed. Golden tenses up when she presses down hard on his lower back until it cracks. He relaxes and sighs happily.

"T-thanks for this again," He says softly. He never wanted to be upset about Riloxia's remarks. Neither did Raikia, who wanted to bring him here in the first place. When she heard what Riloxia told him, she felt a flash of anger for the first time in more than a year.

"It's my pleasure," She remarks. "Especially for someone as... kind as you."

"O-oh stop with the flattery," Golden's ears droop. Flashes of his past incarnation's anger still bother him in his dreams and in moments of peace. Why would she call him kind when he knew he got very upset in his past?

"I've said it before. Golden, your past lives do not matter for your kindness," She nibbles at his cheek. "It's there here and now that counts. What wrongs have you done here?"

"Not doing my job as the god of emotion?" Golden looks over into her violet eyes.

"Has it ever gotten bad enough to warrant you popping over to the problem area?" Rai asks. She gives his mane a stroke. "There have been very little deaths that haven't fallen from old age or... miscarriages." She winces. "The latter is my realm. You get all the other shit. We are at a time of  _peace_  in the nation. Have been for well over three hundred years."

"Ever since the banishment of the unicorn tribes," Golden recalls. Those times were particularly rough for the gods. Solacia would attempt to step in and imprison them, but they would slip through cracks in her hastily built defenses. Failing that, they would try to physically fight the unicorns. Golden never felt so much pain as he did before he felt his fur burn away. They took everything from him including his life. Flashbacks to his death rattles and the final fight often left him shaking and sobbing despite it being a different life. Riloxia, in a rare fit of compassion, tried to identify the abnormal behavior Golden experienced through the time stream. He found essentially nothing, so he and the rest of the gods written it off as a curse. As retribution from the death, Celestia finally stepped in and sealed the tribes in a dimension not even Solacia could access.

Since then, no threat has eclipsed the skirmishes. The citizens went on to do great things. First contact with Griffonstone occurred in 1300 which brought a whole new trade route into the picture. Golden always thought it was weird how the griffons got preferential treatment over the dragons in the Dragonlands. It was something none of the main four gods could explain. At the time, a much younger Golden assumed it was due to Celestia's anger at her own sister. When Golden asked if she would banish her brother, Solacia shook her head and told him that she wouldn't do it. That statement made sense to Golden at the time. What didn't was Celestia's inconsistency with her foreign policies. A year later, he resigned to the fact that things would be odd for years to come. Ponies would get mad at her decrees, then go back to their lives as if nothing had happened. That was absolutely infuriating to him.

Once Raikia's hooves brush over his flanks, he shifts in discomfort. "H-hey, be careful where you rub. I don't want to be the recipient of the love god's... very deep love, shall we say?"

"Understandable," She coos. Her hooves brush up against his lower back, eliciting a shiver from the stallion.

"And don't do what you usually do and take advantage of my weak spots," Golden sighs. "It is almost as if I know you well, dear Rai. You could do so much to me, but I know you would ask first." Her softness travels up his back and onto his neck where it remains. She gently rubs at the base of his neck, then kisses him on a clump of fur below his horn.

"You good with all this?" Raikia asks. "I have to take care of a thing or two off-dimension. If I leave you alone, promise me you won't tear down this whole place?" She giggles softly.

"I promise, Rai. Go do what you need to do. I'll be here." Golden smiles as she kisses his cheek. She trots out of the room, leaving him to stew in his own thoughts and emotions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, I should do more RaikiaXGolden fluff. She just wants him to feel good. Anyway, until next time :3
> 
> <3


End file.
